The department store Montgomery Ward commissioned Robert May to write the story of Rudolph so that they could sell a line of coloring books back in 1939. May wrote the story as a poem in a similar style to “The Night Before Christmas”. May’s brother-in-law Johnny Marks wrote the famous “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” song ten years later. Despite being Jewish, Marks wrote many well-known Christmas songs including “Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”. Both the character of Rudolph and the accompanying song are staples of the Christmas season. However, both are still trademarked to this day. The use of Rudolph without permission from Classic Media (the company behind the Rudolph stop-motion movies) is against the law and could result in a lawsuit.
