It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! And nothing says Christmas like classic TV holiday specials! Over the next two weeks, we’ll be toasting and roasting two of the most famous from the duo of Rankin and Bass. Which of them belongs on the Nice List and which one deserves a shiny lump of coal in its stocking. This is Legends of Christmas! Airing sixty years ago this month, the first Rankin and Bass Christmas special asked if you recall the most famous reindeer of all. Based on the children’s book by Robert L. May, originally published by Montgomery Ward, and made perhaps even more famous by the Gene Autry version of song written by May’s brother-in-law Johnny Marks. The most famous version of all is the TV special produced by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, sponsored by GE, which aired on NBC and adapted the original story into an “Animagic” stop-motion saga featuring Rudolph, Hermey, Sam the Snowman, Yukon Cornelius, the Bumble, and more. An instant classic, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer kicked off a tradition of Rankin/Bass Christmas specials, including Frosy the Snowman, Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town, and The Year Without a Santa Claus. But does this one go down in history, or down in flames? 

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Special Christmas Music: Christmas Rap Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

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