The Real Story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Ever wonder how or where Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer came from? You may be surprised at this popular holiday character's origin.
Quick Reference: The Real Story of Rudolph
- Created: Spring 1939, by advertising copywriter Robert L. May
- For: Montgomery Ward, as a free Christmas giveaway pamphlet
- Songwriter: Johnny Marks, May’s brother-in-law, 1949
- First hit recording: Gene Autry, 1949, released for the 1949 Christmas season
- Original booklet copies handed out by Wards, 1939: Roughly 2.4 million
- Book edition sold: 100,000 copies in 1947 alone, after the copyright was gifted back to May
- Autry single sales: Over 25 million copies to date, the second best-selling Christmas single of all time behind Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”
The real story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer starts in spring 1939 with an ad man on a lunch break, not a folk tale carried across generations. Rudolph was born inside a Chicago department store’s marketing department, drafted as a giveaway to bring shoppers through Montgomery Ward’s Christmas doors. Ninety years later that lunch-hour sketch is the most played holiday song on American radio.
Here is the timeline as the Farmers’ Almanac has traced it, with the sources, dates, and near-miss decisions that turned an in-store promotion into a permanent piece of Christmas folklore.
A Copywriter, a Department Store, and a Lunch Break
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was born in the spring of 1939, at a moment when the world was on the verge of a colossal war. He was the creation of Robert L. May, an advertising copywriter for the Montgomery Ward department stores, and, as it happened, the brother-in-law of a working composer named Johnny Marks. During a quiet lunch hour, May dreamed up Rudolph for a Christmas pamphlet as a promotional gimmick for Wards.
Wards had been buying and giving away holiday coloring books for years, and the marketing team wanted an original one they could print in-house and cut the middleman. May, a 34-year-old copywriter who had been passed over for department-store advertising work he considered more prestigious, drew the assignment. He wrote the verse in rhymed couplets. He tested it on his four-year-old daughter Barbara, whose reaction, per the Library of Congress record, was that she loved the misfit reindeer with the shiny nose.
The pamphlet was used by Montgomery Ward for several years. By the end of 1939, Wards had handed out roughly 2.4 million free copies at store counters. In 1947, the chairman of Wards made an outright gift of the copyright of the verse to its creator, Robert L. May. May found a book publisher for it, and 100,000 copies were sold that very same year.
Put It to Music
In 1949, May’s brother-in-law Johnny Marks put the story of Rudolph to music and had the song published. Finding the right singer for the quaint little song was not easy. Marks thought he had Perry Como lined up, but Como wanted a line in the song changed. Marks refused to even change a comma; he was certain he had a hit, so he looked elsewhere.
Gene Autry, the famed cowboy and country-and-western singer, was approached next, but he thought the song too childish for his image. Autry had recorded “Here Comes Santa Claus” in 1947 to good sales, and Columbia Records wanted a follow-up, but he waved this one off as a novelty. The rejection nearly ended Rudolph in the studio.
It Was a Hit
Marks had a demonstration record made up by another country singer and sent that to Autry, who liked what he heard. With an added push from Ina Autry, Gene’s wife, who thought the song would speak to children the way the biblical story of David spoke to underdogs, Gene grudgingly agreed to record it. It turned out to be one of the best decisions of his career. Sales of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” surpassed any other song Autry ever recorded.
The single hit stores in September 1949 and climbed to number one on the US pop chart by Christmas Day. According to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry, which inducted the recording in 2017, Autry’s version has sold more than 25 million copies, second only to Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” among Christmas singles.
And the rest, as they say, is “his-stor-y!”
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: A Year-by-Year Timeline
Why a Red Nose? The Folklore Behind the Detail
May tried a few names before landing on Rudolph. Draft manuscripts held at Dartmouth College, May’s alma mater, show Rollo and Reginald came first. Both were dropped as too dignified for a reindeer with a lit-up nose. Rudolph, borrowed from the Germanic tradition of “hrod” (fame) plus “wulf” (wolf), had a plain-spoken sound closer to what a child would call a pet.
The red-nose detail was a marketing call. May had been the child who stammered and got teased at school. He wrote a hero whose difference turned out to be the exact tool the team needed on a foggy Christmas Eve. That framing was rare in 1939 children’s stories, where the moral usually rewarded conformity. Rudolph was a small quiet inversion of that pattern, dressed up in reindeer harness.
Wards’ art director, Denver Gillen, drew the first Rudolph after sketching the reindeer at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. Gillen’s illustrations set the visual template: soft brown coat, long lashes, and a nose that glowed like the tail light on a Model A. Every Rudolph you have seen since traces back to those zoo sketches.
What the Song Changed About the Story
Johnny Marks compressed May’s 32-page verse into a two-minute lyric, but he made choices. May’s original opens on Rudolph as a young reindeer, not Santa’s reindeer, teased by the neighborhood herd. Marks moves Rudolph straight into Santa’s team and skips the childhood chapter entirely. The song also gives Santa the first line (“You know Dasher, and Dancer”), letting listeners feel like insiders on a story they already half-knew.
Marks kept one detail intact: Santa’s request. In both versions, Santa asks Rudolph, he does not order him. May was quietly insistent that Rudolph’s courage be voluntary, not conscripted. The distinction still shows up in classroom retellings 87 years later.
Rudolph by the Numbers
- 2.4 million free booklets handed out by Montgomery Ward in 1939, according to the Rare Book & Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress.
- 6 million total Wards booklets distributed between 1939 and 1946.
- 100,000 copies of May’s 1947 hardcover sold in the first year.
- 25 million plus copies of Autry’s single sold worldwide, second only to Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” among Christmas records.
- 62 consecutive years that the 1964 Rankin/Bass TV special has aired every Christmas season through 2026, making it the longest-running Christmas special in American broadcast history.
- 1998 the year Bourgeois Pig LLC’s animated feature “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie” reached theaters, adding new supporting characters to the canon.
Plan Your Christmas 2026 Around the Rudolph Timeline
Rudolph is a working holiday tradition for a lot of American families. Read the picture book on the first weekend of Advent (Sunday, November 29, 2026), watch the Rankin/Bass special during the first week of December when it typically airs, and cue up the Autry single any time after Thanksgiving. The Farmers’ Almanac Best Days Calendar suggests wrapping presents on days ruled by Cancer or Pisces, both water signs favorable to giving, and mailing packages on days ruled by Sagittarius or Aquarius, both quick-moving air and fire signs.
The Real Story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer FAQ
Who created Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?
Rudolph was created in spring 1939 by Robert L. May, a copywriter for Montgomery Ward. May wrote the verse in rhymed couplets during his lunch breaks as a Christmas giveaway pamphlet for the department store chain.
Who wrote the Rudolph song?
Johnny Marks wrote the “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” song in 1949. Marks was Robert L. May’s brother-in-law and a working composer who saw the marketability of turning the pamphlet story into a novelty single.
Who was the first to record Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?
Gene Autry recorded the first commercial version in 1949, released for the 1949 Christmas season. Perry Como had been offered the song first but was refused a lyric change. Autry initially thought it was too childish, then agreed after his wife Ina insisted.
How many copies of the Rudolph song has Gene Autry sold?
Autry’s 1949 recording of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” has sold more than 25 million copies, second only to Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” among Christmas singles. The Library of Congress inducted the recording into the National Recording Registry in 2017.
Is Rudolph a real reindeer name from folklore?
No. Unlike Dasher, Dancer, and the six other reindeer from Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” Rudolph is a modern American invention. He was written for a department-store marketing campaign in 1939, not carried down through European folklore.
When does the Rudolph TV special air in 2026?
The 1964 Rankin/Bass stop-motion special “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” typically airs on CBS in the first week of December. Check the local listings for your region as air dates shift year to year. The 2026 broadcast marks 62 consecutive years since the special first ran on NBC on December 6, 1964.
Why did Robert L. May give Rudolph a red nose?
May had stammered as a child and been teased at school. He wrote a hero whose difference turned out to be the exact tool the team needed. The red-nose detail was both a marketing hook (a glowing detail children would remember) and a quiet inversion of the conformist morals typical of 1939 children’s stories.
This article was published by the Staff at FarmersAlmanac.com. Any questions? Contact us at questions@farmersalmananac.com.
- Farmers' Almanac Staff
- Farmers' Almanac Staff
- Farmers' Almanac Staff
- Farmers' Almanac Staff
I remember the Christmas that Gene Autry recorded this song. I was 6 years old, and it was a real treat to listen to it on the radio.
Saw this on here s few days ago.
Wife:and just how do you know it is going to rain.
Rudolph:
Rudolph the Red
Knows
Rain
Dear
The Rudolph album by Gene Autry was the first record my mother brought for me back in the mid 60’s . I still have it and it sounds great on my restored 1950’s Blaupunk stereo console. RIP Gene Autry, “you brought smiles to millions of people both young and old a like”
When I lived in South Dakota around 35 years ago I met the woman who actually wrote it. She worked for Ward at the time. He took her creation and presented it as his own and never gave her the credit.
As the saying goes…Behind every successful man there is a woman pushing!
I was 20 years old when i first heard this song, didn’t understand a word of it then. I’m 57 years old and i still love to hear this song at Christmas time!
And….Dasher was his father, and Dancer was his Mom….how cool is that.
He and Clarice (Clarisse ) are SO CUTE!!! I watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer at least twice every Christmas season!
I remember that we had a Montgomery Wards catalog in the house, along with the Spiegel and Sears, and a catalog store on Maine Street. I also remember when Dad brought the pamphlet about Roudolph home with him. We wore it out reading it!
Actually this is not the truth. An English man wrote this song because his son was different and had disabilities. He wrote this remembering his son. This showed that people were different and it was ok.
‘@ truth – well I like your reason behind cause we all know how hard it is to be different, but all of our research points to the story being as stated. However, we did learn that May, did want Rudolph to be somewhat of an underdog and different as he felt like that growing up. Rudolph is a great story for all ages. Thanks,