The original Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer by Robert L. May.

T'was the day before Christmas and all through the hills the reindeer were playing,

enjoying the spills of skating and coasting and climbing the willows,

and hopscotching and leapfrogging, protected by pillows,

well, every so often they'd stop to call names of one little deer not allowed in their games.

Ha ha, look at Rudolph, his nose is a sight. It's red as a beat, twice as big, twice as bright. While Rudolph just

wept, what else could he do? He knew that the things they were saying were true.

Where most reindeer's noses were brownish and tiny, poor Rudolf was red, very large, and quite shining. In daylight, it dazzled.

The picture shows that. At nighttime, it glowed like the eyes of a cat, and putting dirt on it

just made it look muddy. Oh boy, was he mad when they nicknamed him ruddy. And though he was lonesome,

he always was good, obeying his parents, as a good reindeer should. And that's why, on this day,

Rudolph almost felt playful. He hoped that from Santa, soon driving his sleighful, of presents and candy

and dollies and toys for good little animals, good girls and boys, he'd get just as much,

and this is what pleased him, as the happier, handsomer reindeer who teased him. So as night

in a fog hid the world like a hood,

he went to bed hopeful.

He knew he'd been good.

Well, way, way up north,

on this same foggy night,

old Santa was packing a sleigh for the flight.

This fog, he complained,

will be hard to get through. He shook his round head and his tummy shook

...