“Rudolph” is 60 Today!

Rudolph and friends — Characters from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer fill a storefront in a building next to the Center Street Market on Main Street in Marion. Img 1178

The most famous reindeer of all is celebrating his 60th birthday today!

The “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” TV special first debuted 60 years ago today on NBC, on December 6, 1964.

The stop-motion film has aired on TV every single year since, earning the distinction of the longest continuously running Christmas TV special in the United States!

We all remember watching Rudolph as kids, right? The little reindeer charmed us with his bright and shiny nose. But we also loved Burl Ives as the voice of Sam the Snowman, Hermy the elf who wanted to be a dentist, the gruff prospector Yukon Cornelius, the Island of Misfit Toys, and who could forget the Abominable Snowman?