Rudolph’s Birthday

It is Sunday, July 27th and there are only 151 days left until Christmas.

Today is Rudolph’s Birthday, or, as it really should be known, Robert L. May Day of Christmas.

Robert L. May was the creator of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and he was born on this date way back in 1905. While Rudolph has gone down in history May tends to be forgotten. And that’s too bad. The story of Rudolph’s creation is almost as good as the story of Rudolph himself.

May was no Dickens. He was a copy writer, which is just a term meaning advertising man. He was tasked with coming up with some sort of Christmas giveaway for the kids. Back in those days they didn’t have happy meals or gizmos. Kids actually read books and May was charged with coming up with some sort of Christmas story that would thrill the kids.

Thrill he did. Rudolph has indeed gone down in history as an epic Christmas superstar nearly on the level with Santa himself. A Christmas-in-July celebration would not be complete without a tip of the hat to Mr. May.

Here is a version of Rudolph you may not be familiar with: