🔴 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first appeared in 1939 when Montgomery Ward department store asked one of its copywriters, 34-year-old Robert L. May, to create a Christmas story the store could give away to shoppers as a promotional gimmick.

The company gave away coloring books each Christmas to bring children and their parents into their store. In 1939, the company decided to produce the books themselves in order to save on cost. Describing the campaign as ‘the perfect Christmas crowd-bringer,’ the company gave away more than 2 million copies of the book in their first year, rising to 6 million copies by 1946.

In 1964, an eponymous stop-motion special was aired on television, and now remains the longest-running televised Christmas special of all time.

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