The original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Robert L. May.
'Twas the day before Christmas and all through the hills the reindeer were playing, enjoying the spills of skating and coasting and climbing the willows and hopscotching and leapfrogging protected by pillows.
Well, every so often they'd stop to call names of one little deer, not allowed in their games.
Ha ha, look at Rudolph, his nose is a sight.
It's red as a beet, twice as big, twice as bright.
Well, Rudolph just wept.
What else could he do?
He knew that the things they were saying were true, where most reindeer's noses were brownish and tiny.
Poor Rudolph's was red, very large, and quite shiny.
In daylight, it dazzled.
The picture shows that.
At nighttime, it glowed like the eyes of a cat, and putting dirt on it just made it look muddy.
Oh boy, was he mad when they nicknamed him Ruddy.
And though he was lonesome, He always was good, obeying his parents, as a good reindeer should.
And that's why, on this day, Rudolph almost felt playful.
He hoped that from Santa, soon driving his sleigh full of presents and candy and dollies and toys for good little animals, good girls and boys, he'd get just as much and this is what pleased him, as the happier handsomer reindeer who teased him.
So as night and a fog hid the world like a hood, he went to bed hopeful.
He knew he'd been good.
Well, way, way up north, on this same foggy night, old Santa was packing his sleigh for the flight.
This fog, he complained, will be hard to get through.
He shook his round head and his tummy shook too.
Without any stars or a moon as our compass, this extra dark night is quite likely to swamp us.
To keep from collisions, we'll have to fly slow.
To keep our direction, we'll have to fly low.
We'll steer by street lamps and houses tonight in order to finish before it gets light.
Just think how the boys and girls' faith would be shaken if we didn't reach them before they awakened.
Come Dasher, come Dancer, come Prancer and Vixen, come Comet, come Cupid, come Donner and Blitzen.
Be quick with your suppers, get hitched in a hurry.
You too will find fog and delay in a worry.
And Santa was right, as he usually is.
The fog was as thick as a soda's white fizz.
Just not getting lost needed all Santa's skill. with street signs and numbers more difficult still.
He tangled in treetops again and again and barely missed hitting a tri-motor plane.
He still made good speed with much twisting and turning, as long as the street lights and house lights were burning.
At each house, first noting the people who lived there, he'd quickly select the right presence to give there.
By midnight, however, the last light had fled, for even big people had then gone to bed.
Because it might waken them, a match was denied him.
Oh my, how he wished he had just one star to guide him.
Through dark streets and houses, old Santa fared poorly.
He now picked the presents more slowly, less surely.
He really was worried, for what would he do if folks started waking before he was through?
The air was still foggy, the night dark and drear, when Santa arrived at the home of the deer.
Alleged that he tripped down while seeking the chimney, gave Santa a spill, a painfully skinned knee.
The room he came down in was blacker than ink.
He went for a chair and then found it to be a sink.
The first reindeer bedroom was so very black he tripped on the rug and fell flat on his back.
So dark.
He had to move close to the bed and squint very hard at the sleeping deer's head before he could choose the right kind of toy a doll for a girl or a train for a boy.
But all this took time and filled Santa with gloom, while slowly he groped toward the next reindeer's room, the door he'd just opened when, to his surprise, a dim but quite definite light met his eyes.
The lamp wasn't burning.
The glow came instead from something that lay at the head of the bed.
And there lay... But wait now.
What would you suppose?
The glowing, you've guessed it, was Rudolph's red nose.
So this room was easy.
This one little light let Santa pick quickly the gifts that were just right.
How happy he was.
Until he went out the door...
The rest of the house was as black as before.
So black that it made every step a dark mystery.
And then came the greatest idea in all history.
He went back to Rudolph and started to shake him, of course very gently in order to wake him.
And Rudolph could scarcely believe his own eyes.
You can just imagine his joy and surprise at seeing who stood there so real and so near.
Well, telling the tale we've already told here.
Poor Santa's tale of distress and delay, the fog and the darkness and losing his way.
The horrible fear that some children might waken before his complete Christmas trip had been taken.
And you, he told Rudolph, may yet save the day.
Your wonderful forehead yet pave the way for a wonderful triumph.
It actually might.
Old santa, you know this was extra polite to rudolph regarding his wonderful forehead.
To call it a shiny big nose would be horrid.
I need you, said santa, to help me tonight to lead all my deer on the rest of our flight.
And Rudolph broke out into such a big grin it almost connected his ears and his chin.
And note for his folks, he dashed off in a hurry.
I've gone to help Santa, he wrote.
Do not worry, said Santa.
My sleigh I'll bring down to the lawn.
You'd stick in the chimney.
And flash, he was gone.
The Rudolph pranced out through the door very gay and took his proud place at the head of the sleigh.
And the rest of the night, well, what would you guess?
Old Santa's idea was a brilliant success.
And brilliant was almost no word for the way that Rudolph directed the deer and the sleigh.
In spite of the fog, they flew quickly and low and made such good use of the wonderful glow from Rudolph's forehead at each intersection, but not even once did they lose their direction.
Well, as for the houses and streets with a sign on them, they merely flew close so that Rudolph could shine on them.
To tell who lived there and just what to give whom, they'd fly by each window and peek at the rooms.
Old Santa always knew which children were good in mind of their parents, ate as they should.
So Santa selected the gift that was right, while Rudolph's forehead gave just enough light.
It all went so fast that, before it was day, the very last present was given away.
The very last stocking was filled to the top, just as the sun was preparing to pop.
This sun woke the reindeer in Rudolph's hometown.
They found the short message he'd written down.
Then they gathered outside to await his return.
And were they excited astonished, to learn that Rudolph, the ugliest deer of them all, Rudolph the Red Nose, so bashful and small, the funny-faced fellow they always called names and practically never allowed in their games, was now to be envied by all far and near.
For no greater honor can come to a deer than riding with Santa and guiding his sleigh.
The number one job on the number one day.
The sleigh and its reindeer soon came into view, and Rudolph still led them.
As downward they flew and oh boy was he proud as they came to a landing right where his handsomer playmates were standing.
These bad deer, who used to do nothing but tease him, would now have done anything only to please him.
They felt even sorrier.
They had been bad when Santa said Rudolph, I never have had a deer quite so brave or brilliant as you at fighting black fog and at guiding me through.
By you, last night's journey was actually bossed.
Without you, I'm certain we'd all have been lost.
I hope you'll continue to keep us from grief on future dark trips as Commander-in-Chief.
But Rudolph just blushed from his head to his toes until his whole fur was as red as his nose.
The crowd first applauded, then started to screech.
Hooray for our Rudolph!
And we want a speech!
But Rudolph was bashful despite being a hero and tired.
His sleep on the trip totaled zero.
And that's why his speech was just brief and not bright.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
And that's why whenever it's foggy and gray, it's Rudolph the Red Nose who guides Santa's sleigh.
Be listening this Christmas.
Don't make a peep, because that late at night, children should be asleep.
The very first sound that you'll hear on the roof provided there's fog will be Rudolph's small hoof.
And soon after that, if you're still as a mouse, you may hear a swish as he flies around the house and gives enough light to give Santa a view of you and your room.
And when they're all through, you may hear them call as they drive out of sight.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
And that's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
