Wisdom I Gleaned From The Story Of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
First posted on December 16, 2023. Edited on December 15, 2024.
When I think of the story of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, I think of the Rankin/Bass animated production that I religiously watched every Christmas, from when I was probably a toddler until I was well into adulthood, I’m not ashamed to say.
Burl Ives swishing around as a snowman… Rudolph’s electrical, red nose… silly elf songs — according to Santa, that is (the elves tried so hard to please Santa!)… bumbles bouncing. The stop motion technology brilliantly solidified the work as a holiday classic.
As the story goes, everybody was giving Rudolph a hard time about his red nose. Nobody had ever seen one, and fear overtook their hearts. Rudolph’s parents felt the solution was to hide who he was, so they made him smear the nose they gave him with mud, which made him sound like he had a stuffy nose.
One day the decoy popped off, exposing Rudolph’s perceived flaw, and his peers — including his friend, Fireball, who happened to be rocking a ginger mohawk, in 1964 no less, but nobody gave him grief — flipped out and outcast Rudolph. Which isn’t surprising. They were young bucks and not very mature. Plus, imagine the shock of seeing a glowing light bulb for somebody’s nose!
But the coach (Comet, in case you’re wondering) — an adult, an authority figure, a leader! — failed to step up after he freaked out worse than them and say, “Cool it, guys. We need to embrace everyone’s differences. Maybe someday Rudolph’s nose will lead Santa’s sleigh through a terrible snowstorm. Or something like that.” The coach lacked foresight.
It gets worse.
Santa piped up and shamed Donner (Rudolph’s father) for passing bad genes just minutes after Rudolph dazzled Santa with his phenomenal flying around. Geez, Santa. Which was a blow to Rudolph. Not just because, what other career options did he have as a reindeer living at the North Pole? Santa, too, lacked foresight. And wasn’t very nice. Not to mention, he was wrong: It’s the reindeer’s legs that do the work of flying through the air, not their noses.
In Santa’s defense, I think he was cranky (and not thinking straight). From not eating, stressed-out about the impending work deadline. He was atypically skinny in that scene. Mrs. Claus was constantly after him to, Eat, Papa, eat!
Of all the insulting names that were flung at Rudolph — beak, fire snout, rainbow puss, red schnoz (I consulted the script) — the one that stuck was the most degrading of all: Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer.
Naturally, Rudolph was hurt. Who wouldn’t be? Nobody wants to be called names and banned from reindeer games, and the most important person in the North Pole — in the world! — didn’t believe in him.
Mind you, it was the beautiful, young doe, Clarice, who was not swayed in the least. Clarice had women’s intuition and saw past the parental folly, bucking around, and purported occupational hazard-ness to his character. Clarice knew Rudolph was a package. But despite her support and affections, ashamed, dejected, feeling unworthy and traumatized, Rudolph ran away to do some soul searching.
And met Hermie, who was outcast from the elfen community — same story, it’s universal — because he wanted to be a dentist. Of all things! But this was before the internet. And together they met a whole colony of misfits… toys! As fate would have it, marketing research missteps. They met a gold hunter, Yukon Cornelius, who taught them a valuable nugget, that you have to face your fears. And proved it to them by taming the bully in those parts, the Bumble, which ended in them falling off a cliff together.
Fortunately, everything turned around in the best possible light, with everyone realizing that they hadn’t been kind to Rudolph, including Santa. Yukon Cornelius and the Bumble bounced back to Christmas Town and put a star atop the Christmas tree, Hermie opened up a dental practice and started taking appointments, and everyone was treating Rudolph right.
But the story doesn’t end there!
Santa was in a pickle. It was Christmas Eve and a terrible snowstorm was forecast — all around the world! Or maybe just pulling out of the North Pole. Christmas would have to be cancelled!
As Santa was making the announcement, Rudolph’s red nose was ablaze, blinding Santa, who was testy and like, Can you stop that? oblivious to the moment, the divine timing of the universe swooping in with a (BLARING) (BLATANT) (RED) sign trumpeting, STOP, LOOK! HERE IS YOUR SOLUTION… perhaps hypoglycemic by that point, Mrs. Claus still chasing him around, Eat, Papa, eat! skinny in that scene, too…
When it clicked. And Santa declared with glee, “Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”
Rudolph, being the good guy that he was, said, Yes! and saved the (holi)day!
Happy at last, Santa sat down to a hearty meal and within seconds was plumped up, jolly, and likin’ the elves holiday songs. (A reminder not to skip meals.) The Christmas squad headed out, stopping to pick up the misfit toys, a promise from Rudolph, to deliver them to all the good little girls and boys. Because misfit toys also deserve to be loved. Christmas was a success, and all was right with the world.
Going forward, Rudolph would have a job for life, he won the heart of the lovely Clarice, and he went on to have his story told around the world, forever more.
The takeaway from this story is:
Don’t pay any attention to what anyone thinks about you. Stay in your truth, and you will find your place in the world, find success, and even find true love.
© Marlene Veltre 2024 All rights reserved
