Every Tuesday in December, I plan to post about
a different one of my favorite Christmas specials. Today I’ll start with
everyone’s favorite ruminant from 1964.
I
wanted to begin the month with this show because it seems that when I was a
kid, this was the first Christmas special to air on TV. These poor kids today.
They can watch their favorite shows anytime they want, just throw in the DVD or
pull it up on Netflix. Maybe that’s part of what’s wrong with the younger
generation. No sense of waiting and wondering.
I
digress.
So
why does “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” make my list? For starters, doesn’t it
make everyone’s list? We all know the songs. There’s comedy, adventure,
romance. And doesn’t everyone always root for the underdog? I’m surprised with
so much attention on bullying (and for good reason, don’t get me wrong), that I
haven’t heard anything about Rudolph and his friend Hermey being the victims of
bullying and what they do to overcome it. (Of course, I do kind of live under a
rock, so I miss a lot.)
But
then there’s that final scene. Rudolph is hitched to the front of the sleigh.
He has saved Christmas. Everyone’s happy. Everyone except a dolly for Sue, Charlie
in the Box and the train with square wheels. In fact I just read on some
website of 10 facts you didn’t know about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer that
in the original broadcast they never showed what happened to the misfit toys.
But there was such an outrage by young viewers, that the following year the
producers added that scene with the iconic line from Dolly, “I haven’t any
dreams left to dream.”
To
which I say, you always have a dream and you have to keep dreaming it. Someday it
will come true. It did for the misfit toys and it will for anyone who doesn’t
give up.
That’s
why Rudolph stands the test of time in my book, and not just because it is the
longest running holiday special ever.
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