Say what you will about how well or how poorly the stop-motion Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer television special has aged. It tells the truth.

It was the first of dozens of Rankin & Bass-produced stop-motion holiday movies. Rudolph, the Heat Miser, and Frosty were constants in my childhood, during which I marked time with annual viewings sitting cross-legged on an orange shag carpet too close to a 50-inch console television. I, along with millions of other GenX kids, grew up on this stuff. And, as you’ll soon read, that explains a lot.

Birthing An Icon

As the story goes from the interview feature on my Rudolph DVD, Arthur Rankin, Jr. lived nearby Johnny Marks, songwriter of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer made famous by Gene Autry in 1949. The two New Yorkers somehow decided to create a whole story around the song, and Rankin sought to produce it as stop-motion animation. NBC put up the $500K and Rankin got to work with production partner Jules Bass.

The 8-to-12-inch fully articulated figures were made in Japan for a small-scale set. Burl Ives, a well-known folk artist, signed on to give a voice to Sam the Snowman (narrator) and to sing a few songs.

An icon was born in December 1964 when NBC debuted the holiday special during their General Electric Fantasy Hour. Miss old-school commercials? Check out this gem for Rudolph:

1964 was…

Nearly twenty years after World War II ended.

Ten years after Senator Joseph McCarthy’s disgraceful Red Scare hearings and the Korean War, which was America’s first hot conflict of the Cold War.

One year since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Finally, the year itself, 1964, is the transition birth year between the last of the Boomers and the first of GenX.

Was America simply ready for a new mythology of heartwarming tales that leaned into Americanism?

A Cast of Characters

The Bright Shining Star – Rudolph

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is an undisputed 20th century American icon. And like most 20th century American icons, Rudolph is a cog in the capitalist machine.

(Look, I titled this post ‘Hot Take,’ so, really, don’t get bent. There’s more to come. You’ll get exhausted! But I promise a good ending.)

Rudolph’s story was originally a poem composed in 1939 by Montgomery Ward copywriters (actually, by the bro-in-law of songwriter Marks) to give away as a booklet in the brand’s department store. I.e., Rudolph started as a marketing funnel.

Looking for one of the millions of booklets they gave away? You’ll find it on eBay priced anywhere from 15’ish bucks for a 1967 reissue to nearly $500 for a 1939 original.

You know the poem because you know the song. Knowing the song, you know Rudolph has a unique feature, and it’s one that the other reindeer do not admire. The story is actually a riff on The Ugly Duckling (which I wrote about here).

We all also know that this unique feature—his bright, glowing, red nose—is what later saves the day when a blinding blizzard threatens to ground Santa and cancel Christmas.

LESSON: We all know from the song, the t.v. special, and from life itself – a unique feature can be a non-stop ticket to outcast city. But … if you and it is useful to others, that may be your redemption.

The Man in Charge – Santa

This Rankin & Bass Santa Claus is a very American take on the jolly old elf. He lives in a castle. Grumbles at the long-suffering and perpetually busy wife’s fussing over his well-being. Strides around stables and factory floors surveying his domain. He is habitually low key rude and dismissive, which everyone amiably, if nervously, tolerates. Just the typical curmudgeonly old white guy-in-charge.

Upon meeting a newborn Rudolph, Santa is at first impressed with Donner’s boy. Afterall, Donner is one of THE reindeer, fast and strong enough to pull on the sleigh team! Once that nose glows, however, Santa balks in amazement. Not the good kind. Donner stammers that he’s sure Rudolph will grow out of it. To which Santa says, “Well, let’s hope so, if he wants to make the sleigh team someday.” 

What does a glowing nose have to do with pulling a sleigh? Anyway …

Santa doubles-down later when Rudolph’s soaring reindeer game leap is marred by his nose flaring, saying, “Donner, you should be ashamed of yourself. What a pity. He had a nice takeoff, too.”

LESSON: And we, an entire generation, heard it from Santa Claus himself, there on t.v. where everything is gospel, even if you’re very good at something, most people believe that being different is very bad.

The Proud’ish Papa – Donner

Speaking of proud papa: Donner’s pride in his newborn child lasts all of about 15 seconds until Rudolph’s first illumination. His stop-motion wide eyes were not the kind that meant joyful wonder.

Baby Rudolph is already a source of shame for this papa. So, Donner rubs mud on his son’s nose and says, “You’ll be a normal little buck just like everybody else, right? A chip off the old antlers. Now, now. You’ll get used to it. Put it there, son.”

LESSON: If your light is ‘too much,’ the people closest to you might try to cover it up.

(Look, don’t get mad at me! I didn’t write the script! And you knew this was a hot take going in. Lastly, where is the lie?)

The Feminine Archetype – Clarice

Clarice is the cute, blonde, hairbow’d doe whose “I think you’re cute”-whisper sends Rudolph literally leaping at the reindeer games.

She bats her eyelashes, Rudolph blushes. Even after his false nose falls off (yep, another method to conceal his greatness), Clarice still has eyes for Rudolph.

Despite displaying more courage than most in this story, Clarice does eventually serve as a damsel in distress that needs saving by Rudolph.

LESSON: Every man needs a woman who will do emotional labor with him. And who will always make sure he comes out looking like a hero.

The Hostile Everyman – Elf Foreman

Where there is a curmudgeon-in-a-castle, there is usually a gruff factory foreman. This perpetual frowner doesn’t have a name; maybe it’s because he simply embodies the average overworked/underappreciated laborer.

Anyway!

The Elf Foreman (EF) is on a parallel storyline of compliance: Hermey, his elf subordinate, doesn’t want to elf. Hermey wants to be a dentist. EF blows his stack. Often. As if to intimidate Hermey into toeing the elf line. Interestingly, EF is NOT in the original poem or song, so this is a wholly created character steeped in mid-20th century American perceptions of work and workers.

So, it is very telling that when EF and his subordinates sing for Santa, the big bearded boss winces and squirms through the whole thing (yes, in stop-action!), and mutters at the end, “Needs work. Gotta go.”

LESSON: People in charge are often miserable and may try to steal your joy and make you miserable. There might be an explanation for their misery, but we’re usually too miserable ourselves to care.

The Self-assured Dreamer – Hermey the Elf

Hermey the Elf doesn’t want to elf. Full stop.

That’s enough to raise the ire of the Elf Foreman and earn the side-eye of the other elves. Hermey also isn’t in the song, so I can’t imagine why Rankin & Bass went with dentistry as Hermey’s unconventional aspiration. But the fabulously swoosh-haired elf is set on following his dream, so he fully, fearlessly accepts he is a ‘misfit’ and runs away from the elf life.

Maybe it’s just that they needed a convenient plot device to, ahem, de-fang a monster later in the story.

And I’m not going to say the thing about Hermey that you might think I’m going to say. And if you don’t know what I mean, it doesn’t speak for you. Just know that when he and Rudolph meet up, they make a chosen family.

LESSON: Reminder: Different = Bad. You might have to leave town to live your truth.

The Rugged Individualist – Yukon Cornelius

This bearded bear of a man blusters onto the scene with a pistol in his belt and a sled pulled by … lap dogs? It’s true, Yukon Cornelius’s sled team has at least one poodle, what looks like a spaniel, and a handful more of yappy little dogs. Gods knows why.

He’s constantly flinging around a pickaxe, and LICKING IT (again, gods knows why) in search of precious metals. Maybe he is just the archetype of the rugged American individualist hungry for windfalls that lead to unimaginable riches. Which is not meant to be questioned.

Yukon is, however, also fearless, loyal, and eager to join in on the adventure (and blend into the chosen family) with Hermey and Rudolph.

LESSON: When you proudly and bravely do your own thing, no matter how weird it is, people tend to respect you.

The Common Enemy – The Bumble

The Abominable Snowman, a.k.a, the Bumble, is DANGER. The Bumble roars and stomps and chases and is generally to be avoided. Everyone runs from the snow beast.

Just when the Bumble presumably is about to have Clarice and Mrs. Donner for lunch, Rudolph swoops in to run interference, Yukon lures it out, and Hermey concusses it with snow boulders before yanking out its teeth. Later after a dramatic trip over a cliff, Yukon leads the Bumble into civilization, claiming he has reformed the beast, who just wants …. a job…?

I mean, okay?

LESSON: The system can neutralize all enemies and even has a job for the most outside outsiders. All it takes is being bopped on the head, getting defanged, and being thrown over a cliff.

Island of Misfit Toys

This place is a depressing and weird purgatory for odd and discarded toys. The choo-choo caboose with square wheels makes sense, but the doll only seems to be sad (hmmm). This scene always got to me when I was a kid. The Velveteen Rabbit and Corduroy were storybooks I already cried over (and still do) that also anthropomorphized toys dealing with some level of rejection.

Again, unclear what Rankin & Bass were up to with this plot detail, other than “here’s a whole land of misfits that can later be ‘saved’ by an enlightened Santa Claus.”

LESSON: Misfits tend to flock together. They may still yearn for acceptance in the wider world, but, until that happens, at least they have each other.

The Truth

The big finale is that Rudolph, and the thing that made him an outcast, saves the day. As soon as his shining nose is seen as an asset that can save Christmas, Santa pleads for his help. Donner is the proud Papa again. “Then,” as the song goes, “how the (name-calling) reindeer loved him.”

Put this way, the story can ring kind of awful in 2025, as our sensibilities in the last half century have turned toward compassion and acceptance (although, as I type those words, it seems less true every day). (Also, blame Evan Dawson, host of the local public radio daily show Connections, for pointing this out about the Rudolph special on the show’s 12/16/25 episode.)

The truth is, all these lessons still very much exist. Rudolph for its faults-as-viewed-through-a-modern-lens is still a truthful depiction of life and human interactions. We shouldn’t hate on it or cancel it!

In fact, after all this examination, I have to wonder … did the writers of the t.v. special have a quiet agenda? Rather than normalizing bullying and rejection, did shining Rudolph’s light on it all satirize and indict these behaviors?

Is THIS the hot take I’ve been building up to?

Maybe. <wink>

Lessons from GenX

For those of us born between 1965 and 1980, why are we the way we are? Because we grew up on shows like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer where celebrating Christmas came with lessons we were already living in everyday life, and which are still true:

Being different is still feared and reviled.

That often makes people not nice.

Monsters do exist.

But…

You don’t have to do what’s expected of you.

You can choose family.

Even if they call you a misfit, you can still defeat monsters and be the hero everyone needs.

From one misfit to another, Merry Christmas.