Long before it was a song and even longer before it was a yearly Christmas television special, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was a story published by the Montgomery Ward Company in 1939. The character Rudolph was created by Robert L. May as an assignment for Montgomery Ward.

The song was written by Johnny Marks, who just happened to be Robert L. May’s brother-in-law. Ten years later Gene Autry recorded it, taking it to number one on the U.S. charts the week of Christmas 1949.

The song originally had an added introduction of “You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?” and Autry’s version is still often heard with that as part of it.

This year the song has been inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being ”culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”.

Why is “Rudolph” one of my twenty-five favorite Christmas songs? It brings back fond memories of being a kid at Christmas and the yearly watching of the television special.

Fun Rudolph fact: The “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” television special is sixty years old this year and is being broadcast tonight December 6 on NBC, where it first debuted back in 1964 on the same date. It hasn’t been with NBC for fifty years. An extra ten minutes has been added to the special.