Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

I love "A Charlie Brown Christmas" like millions of others, it teaches us the true meaning of Christmas year after year (which doesn't involve putting up big, inflatable snowmen on our lawns - although there's nothing wrong with that).  

But my favorite Christmas specials during my childhood have to be the old Rankin/Bass ones. I've always been a fan of stop-motion animation and the Rankin/Bass specials were some of the finest.

"Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" was my tops. Although "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was very groundbreaking in it's day with it's religious lesson about Christmas. "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer," teaches a more universal life lesson that kids (not to mention adults) of all races and religion should learn: Accepting others for their differences and not believing into stereotypes. Rankin/Bass accomplishes this with it's memorable characters: the reindeer whose nose glows, the elf who wants to be a dentist, and all those adorable misfit toys. Not to mention the abominable snowman who isn't as mean and scary as those want to believe, but merely cranky due to a bad toothache. 

My favorite character was so minor that if you blink you might miss her, but it turns out the mystery of Dolly the doll was on a lot of other minds as well. She did not have a visual difference nor did she have a stereotype, but she was on the Island of Misfit Toys. Turns out years later, Rankin explained that Dolly's problem was psychological - she was depressed because her original owner abandoned her. This was years before "Toy Story"s Jessie the cowgirl. So what is the lesson of Dolly? love each other unconditionally.  

As for the true meaning of Christmas? well, it's simple - "good will to" all.  

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