…那个长着异常的红色而充满生气的鼻子，能够在浓雾中辨别方向，拉着圣诞老人的雪橇的是谁呢？

关于鲁道夫的故事在1939年传出，并且很快就家喻户晓了。圣诞老人们在蒙哥马利·沃德商店分发了二百四十万份名为“鲁道夫，红鼻子的驯鹿”的小册子。这个故事是由在广告部工作的罗伯特·梅写的，而里面的插图是由丹佛·吉琳画的。依照查尔斯·普纳题写的《日常事物的非常起源》所说，那头驯鹿最初的名字并不叫鲁道夫，而是叫做罗洛，但是在发布时没有叫这个名字（也没有叫雷金纳德）。鲁道夫这个名字是作者的女儿取的。在1949年，吉恩·奥垂以音乐的形式演唱那首小册子里的诗，随后一炮而红，并且成为了一张金唱片。《鲁道夫之歌》的流行程度仅次于《白色圣诞节》。

...who guides Santa's sleigh with the biological aberration² of a red, glowing nose capable of penetrating³ thick fog?

The whole story of Rudolf appeared, out of nowhere, in 1939. Santas at Montgomery Ward⁴ stores gave away 2.4 million copies of a booklet entitled "Rudolf the Red-Nose Reindeer." The story was written by a person in the advertising⁵ department named Robert May, and the booklet was illustrated⁶ by Denver Gillen. The original name of the reindeer was not Rudolf, according to the book "Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things", by Charles Panati. The original name was Rollo, but executives did not like that name, nor Reginald. The name Rudolf came from the author's young daughter! In 1949, Gene⁷ Autry sang a musical version of the poem and it was a run-away best-seller. The Rudolf song is second only to "White Christmas" in popularity.