Christmas Cheer

Last night my all-time favorite Christmas special came on TV. The endearing Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. For my entire living memory I have watched this Christmas special every year. As a grown-up (er, groan-up) watching this felt and clay coming-of-age animated tale reveals many emotional triggers to me now. It makes me wonder if, as a child, I picked up on the themes used throughout the show: struggling with being “different”, that “going it alone” is hard, “going home” is best, and humility can lead to redemption. Or did I watch through the lens of “happily ever after” and simply sing along to all the songs. Which I know all the words to. By heart.


For the innocents who have yet to accumulate any baggage in their short sweet lives, they are likely riveted, as I most assuredly was, with the adventure Rudolph sets out on as he attempts to come to terms with his freakish, glowing red nose.

Along with Hermy, the elfin Dentist, the loner prospector Yukon Cornelius, they do battle with the scariest creature of my childhood memories - the Abominable Snow Monster, then find themselves at the behest of the great winged-lion King Moonracer, who implores them to ask Santa to find homes for all the indigent inhabitants of the Island of Misfit Toys.

Their stories are sad, pitiful even, evoking sympathy from the audience who surely, in this time of the ubiquitous Salvation Army bell-ringing, knows a little boy or girl who would simply love a Charlie-In-The-Box, a train with square wheels, an elephant with spots, a bird that swims or an ostrich-riding cowboy.

On Christmas Eve, Santa declares “We’ll have to cancel Christmas. I’ll have to tell everybody it’s off this year.” Our collective hearts sink. We revert to a child’s mentality and feel so let down, painfully, dreadfully disappointed. I mean, What on Earth will we DO if CHRISTMAS is CANCELLED?!?! Fortunately we are soon jerked to attention by the ruby glow of Rudolph’s nose as Santa has an epiphany! Christmas CAN go on despite the “storm of storms”! In an act of great humility, Santa affirms that the very thing that made Rudolph a freakish outcast among his reindeer friends, which caused him to leave Christmastown in the first place, is the one solitary thing that will save Christmas!
And our hero, Rudolph, with no trace of resentment or gloating in his voice whole-heartily obliges. Oh - and he gets the girl (Clarice) to boot! With a single tear trickling down my cheek I think HOORAY for Rudolph! Christmas is SAVED!

I recall every Christmas Eve, for the longest time, I would stare intently at the night sky outside my bedroom window when I was supposed to be going to sleep. Waiting, hoping, praying… for just a tiny glimpse of that bright glowing red nose (and of course the sound of sleigh bells would have been a major bonus). That excitement, that anticipation, was so pure. Oh to be so utterly filled with joy and innocence again.