My Favorite Holiday Story

A guy named Bob May, depressed and broken-hearted, stared out his drafty apartment window into the chill December night. His four year-old daughter Barbara sat on his lap, quietly sobbing.  Bob's wife Evelyn was dying of cancer. Little Barbara couldn't understand why her mommy could not come home. Barbara looked up into her dad's eyes and asked, "Why isn't Mommy just like everybody else's mommy?" Bob's jaw tightened and his eyes were wet with tears. Her question brought waves of grief but also of anger.

It was the story of Bob's life. Life had always been different for Bob. Being small when he was little, Bob was often bullied by other boys. He was too little at the time to compete in sports. He was called names he'd rather not remember.

From childhood, Bob was different and never seemed to fit in. Bob did complete college and married his loving wife and was grateful to get his job as a copywriter for Montgomery Ward during the Great Depression. Then he was blessed with his little girl. But his happiness was short-lived. Evelyn's bout with cancer stripped them of their savings and now Bob and his daughter went to live in a two-room apartment in the Chicago slums. Evelyn died just before Christmas in 1938.

Bob strugged to give hope to his child for whom he couldn't even afford to buy a Christmas gift. But if he couldn't buy a gift, he was determined to make her one--a storybook.

Bob had created animal characters in his own mind and told the animal's story to little Barbara to give her comfort and hope.  Again and again, Bob told the story, embellishing it with each telling.  Who was the character?  What was the story about?

The story Bob created was his own autobiography in fable form. The character he created was an outcast like he was. The name of the character?  A little reindeer named Rudolph with a red nose.

Bob finished the book just in time to give it to his little girl on Christmas Day.

But the story doesn't end there. The general manager of Montgomery Ward caught wind of the little book and offered Bob May a nominal fee to print the book and distribute it to children visiting Santa Claus in their stores. By 1946 Wards had printed and distributed more than six million copies of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The same year a major publisher wanted to purchase the rights from Wards to print an updated version of the book. In an unprecedented gesture of kindness, the CEO of Wards returned all the rights to Bob.

The book became a best seller.  Many toy and marketing deals followed and Bob May, now remarried with a growing family, became wealthy from the story he created for his daughter.

But the story doesn't end there. Bob's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, made a song adaptation of Rudolph.  Though the song was turned down by such popular vocalists as Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore, it was recorded by Gene Autrey. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was released in 1948 and became a phenomenal success, selling more records than any other Christmas song, with the exception of "White Christmas." The gift of love that Bob May created for his daughter so long ago kept on returning to bless him again and again. And Bob May learned the lesson, just like Rudolph, that being different isn't so bad.  In fact, being different can be a blessing.