Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is a song and popular Christmas story about Santa Claus's ninth and lead reindeer who possesses an unusually red-colored nose that gives off its own light, powerful enough to illuminate the team's path through inclement weather.

The story is owned by The Rudolph Company, L.P. and has been sold in numerous forms including a popular song, a television special (done in stop motion animation), and a feature film. Rudolph was created by Robert L. May in 1939 as part of his employment with Montgomery Ward. May wrote the story of Rudolph in a book that Montgomery Wards could give away to children at Christmastime. His brother-in-law, the songwriter Johnny Marks wrote a song based on the story in 1949 that first became a hit for Gene Autry. Character Arts, LLC manages the licensing for the Rudolph Company, L.P. Although the story and song have not passed into public domain, they have established themselves as folklore (as evidenced by the development of local variations and parodies such as "Deadeye the Lonesome Cowboy," collected in the field by Simon J. Bronner and included in American Children's Folklore).

Santa Claus's reindeer are a team of flying reindeer traditionally held to pull sleigh of Santa Claus and help him deliver Christmas gifts. The commonly cited names of the reindeer are based on those used in the 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, arguably the basis of reindeer's popularity as Christmas symbols, where they are called Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid, and Donder and Blitzen. The subsequent popularity of the Christmas song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" has led to another reindeer name joining the popular roll-call.

Rudolph's story was originally written in verse by Robert L. May for the Montgomery Ward chain of department stores in 1939, and published as a book to be given to children in the store at Christmas time.

According to this story, Rudolph's glowing red nose made him a social outcast among the other reindeer. However, one Christmas eve Santa Claus was having a lot of difficulty making his flight around the world because it was too foggy. When Santa went to Rudolph's house to deliver his presents he noticed the glowing red nose in the darkened bedroom and decided it could be a makeshift lamp to guide his sleigh. He asked Rudolph to lead the sleigh for the rest of the night, Rudolph accepted and returned home a hero for having helped Santa Claus.
Rudolph's story is a popular Christmas story that has been retold in numerous forms, most notably a popular song, a television special,which departed significantly from Robert L. May's original story, in having Rudolph being Donner's son and living amongst Santa Claus' reindeer from birth, and a feature film.