Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (U.S. special)

The song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was a seasonal standard long before it was used in this TV special. The song was first written in 1939, while the character Rudolph was used as a marketing campaign for Montgomery Ward's department store. The popularity of the song eventually skyrocketed in 1947, thanks to Gene Autry's variation of the song.

Although Sam the Snowman's face does resemble Burl Ives, who provided the voice for the character. In reality, he was actually designed to resemble the writer of the special, Romeo Muller.

Yukon Cornelius' pack of sled dogs consist of a cocker spaniel, a poodle, a Saint Bernard, a collie, and a dachshund.

It was for many years, been believed that Comet was voiced by Don Adams. In actuality, Comet was voiced by Paul Kligman who was doing a Don Adams impersonation.

When this TV special was first released, in 1964, the technology of using an articulated metal armature inside the stop motion puppet figures was considered by many to be so amazing that TV Guide devoted four pages to the story on the technology. They however failed to mention that the so-called "new" technology had been pioneered 31 years prior, most prominently it was used for the King Kong stop motion puppet for the 1933 King Kong movie.

Sam the Snowman's songs and narration was originally meant for Yukon Cornelius. Cornelius’ actor Larry D. Mann even recorded all of the songs prior to filming. However, Burl Ives was brought in as being the voice of Sam the Snowman at the last minute to narrate the special as it was believed that having a big named celebrity would help sell it to the networks. The Larry D. Mann recordings of the songs and narration still exist, however they are in the hands of a private collector.

Janis Orenstein was the youngest member of the cast for this TV special, as she was only fifteen years old when she voiced Clarice. According to recording engineer Bill Giles, Janis managed to nail the song "There's Always Tomorrow" in only one take, and while multiple takes were recorded afterward, the first take ended up being the one used in the final TV special.

According to Ken Muller, his brother, Romeo Muller actually intended Hermey to be named "Herbie," after a childhood friend. While Rudolph's sweetheart was named "Clarice" in honor of the bride-to-be of another close friend.

Hermey is the only elf to not have pointed ears. He's also the only male elf with a full set of hair on top of his head as well as having eyes that dilate.

The Santa stop motion puppet is about 8" tall. The young Rudolph is only 4" tall, while his nose really can light up. The puppets were made from wood, wire, and fabric, and were quite fragile to work with. The Japanese studio that handled the stop motion animation made several copies of each puppet, as they knew the puppets wouldn’t last long under the constant handling of stop-motion posing.

In 1979, the "We Are Santa's Elves" musical number was cut entirely from this special for reasons unknown, but it was eventually restored sometime during the 1980s.

Originally there was going to be a scene depicting Rudolph being delivered to Donner and his wife by a stork. This idea ended up being scrapped when General Electric was busy bringing in Burl Ives as the narrator, and the scene ended up never being filmed. In the final version of the TV special, it now appears as though Rudolph was born naturally.

This TV special has aired every year on TV since 1964, making it the longest continuously running Christmas special in the United States.

The original 1964 airing of this TV special did not feature the "Rankin/Bass Present" credit at the beginning due to it being part of the General Electric Fantasy Hour. This credit was later added around 1968 to acknowledge the growing success and name change of the Rankin/Bass company. The original airings only featured the snowflake animation which survives on a 1988 public domain VHS tape of the TV special.

Dolly is one of the handful of misfit toys in the TV special who has no stated reason for being categorized as a misfit. Although Arthur Rankin Jr. has since confirmed it was due to her having psychological issues from being abandoned by her former owner.

With the exception of Charlie-In-The-Box and Dolly, none of the other Misfit Toys have a proper given first name.

The scene in which Rudolph and Hermey first meet leads into their duet reprise of the song "We're a Couple of Misfits." However, for a number of years in the 1970s through the mid 1990s, the song "Fame and Fortune" was interpolated in place of the "Misfits" song. It wasn't until the special was prepared for its 1998 home video release that lead to the "Misfits" song being restored, leaving the "Fame and Fortune" song to occasionally appear on the special features of later home video releases.

In 2024, to commemorate its 60th anniversary, the special aired on its original TV channel, NBC for the first time in 51 years. The special originally premiered on NBC back in 1964 as part of the General Electric Fantasy Hour, it then moved to CBS eight years later in 1972. Upon airing for its 60th anniversary, the special was placed in a 72 minute time slot in an unedited form for the first time in years after it was in the past usually presented in a heavily edited form on CBS to accommodate more commercial time.

The character Yukon Cornelius was named after the Yukon Gold Rush, also known as the Klondike Gold Rush, which took place on the Yukon River, which runs from British Columbia Canada, through the Yukon Territory, and into the state of Alaska. It is a Gwich'in name which means "white water river."

A total of 22 room size sets were used for the filming of the special. It took one year for all 22 sets to be completed. Each set was able to be utilized simultaneously for different scenes as a way to save time and money.

Each construction of a stop motion puppet cost $5000.

The duration of the production time of the special was approximately 18 months.

The newspaper headlines featured in the prologue of the special consists of the following: New York Herald Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Daily Mail, Daily News, & San Francisco Chronicle.

The Head Elf's voice changes from being low and gruff to high and happy upon conducting the elf choir. This indicates that he displays a different personality towards his elves whenever he is present in front of either Mister & Mrs. Claus.

The introduction to the song "We are Santa's Elves," consisting of the quote "anna one-a, anna two-a, anna three-a," is a nod to popular TV bandleader Lawrence Welk; whose variety show was extremely popular during the years prior to and after this special was first broadcast on TV.

Despite that Rudolph was ridiculed for his bright nose, his name initially means "fame," "glory," "honor" and "renown."

As an indication that Clarice is the ideal girlfriend for Rudolph, her name translates to the words "bright" or "clear".

The stop motion animation within this special was "shot on the twos." Basically instead of shooting one frame of film and then moving the puppet, two frames of film were actually shot before moving the puppet for the next exposure. This helped saved time, as well as money. The resulting "jerky" motion that is present in the finished footage of the special has since been dubbed by animators and animation fans as being Rankin/Bass style.

Hermey would later on be used as a product placement for child dental care. In which he would re-introduce kids to better, earlier dental care: including floride, easier to hold brushes for toddlers, etc.

Although Yukon Cornelius has a revolver tucked in his belt & one scene had him saying he needs "gunpowder", not once in the special does he ever fire it or use it for any purpose. The toys of the character that have been released since the year 1999, would feature him having a hunting knife tucked in his belt instead.

At the end of the song "Holly Jolly Christmas," Hermey the elf can be seen dancing (and flirting) with an equally attentive nameless girl elf, giving a suggestion of a budding romance between them.

Despite that Hermey was scolded by the Head Elf for altering some dolls to have working teeth as according to him "we don't need any chewing dolls." The concept of a doll with working teeth would eventually become a reality in the year 1973. When the doll known as "Baby Alive" would hit the toy shelves as the first doll that could ‘eat’ special food and ‘drink’ from a bottle.

While it is unusual for a bird toy to swim and not fly, there are however a few species of birds that can swim but can’t fly. Such species like flightless cormorants, penguins, and steamer ducks are natural born swimmers. The Swimming Bird Toy in question doesn’t resemble any the previously mentioned flightless swimming birds.

The first newspaper featured during the prologue of the New York Herald Tribune features an article under "Cold Wave in 12th Day" headline references the arrest of Mary Peabody, who was an American civil-rights and anti-war activist during the 1960's. The description details her being arrested during the St. Augustine movement.

The second newspaper featured during the prologue of the Chicago Sun Times features a photograph under the "We’re Frozen" headline that credits Bob Kotalik as the photographer. Who was an actual photographer who first started working for the Chicago Sun Times as a copy boy in the mid-1940’s. After he served in the Army Signal Corps for two years during World War II, Kotalik returned working for the Sun-Times in 1947 and was hired as a photographer. By the year 1972, he got promoted to be the newspaper's chief photographer, and he continued to work for the paper until his retirement in 1990 after 47 years of contributions.

The final newspaper featured during the prologue of the San Francisco Chronicle features an article located on the left corner which covers on the progress of the Ranger 7 space probe.

The middle article located on the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper covers a topic about a group of civil rights leaders not approving Barry Goldwater to be elected as president.

The far right article located on the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper covers a topic about Mayor John F. Shelley successfully ending a strike.