I love watching old Christmas movies like the classic 1964 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. This program is the longest running Christmas TV special of all time since it has aired every single December since the 60’s. I love the stop-motion animation, the fun characters, and the music.
I like imagining how children today enjoy the very same television program that children enjoyed almost 60 years ago. Back then, Rudolph first aired on a Sunday night (December 6) on NBC, sponsored by General Electric. I imagine what that Sunday was like in 1964 for children. It mostly likely involved church, a Sunday drive in the family car, and then playing outside riding bikes. I imagine children had just finished their dinner that involved some kind of Jell-O mold and perhaps Beef Stroganoff (popular in the 60’s!) before sitting down to watch the special Christmas program they’ve been waiting all year for. They sat around the single RCA family television in the living room.
So much has changed technologically in our lives and in our homes since the 1960’s, but some things remain as we gather around a Christmas tree to watch Rudolph. While children in the 60’s were more likely to have a hula-hoop than AirPods, iPhones, laptops, they still share something with kids of today: a love of the old classic Christmas movies.