We’re halfway through our Christmas Songs theme week! Today we’re talking about “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. The song came a decade after the character was created for the Montgomery Ward Department Store. The store had been giving out coloring books at Christmas every year but decided creating their own book would save them money. The character and story were created by Robert May, and in 1939, 2.4 million copies of Rudolph’s story were given out. 10 years later, May convinced his brother-in-law, songwriter Johnny Marks, to write a musical adaption of his Rudolph story. It was recorded in 1949 by Gene Autry, who had initially turned the song down but his wife convinced him to record it. It went on to sell a total of 25 million records, and is the 2nd most popular Christmas song of all time after “White Christmas”. Learn more here.