Original subtitles

(tense music)

Knock, knock, knock!

Hello!

(laughing) (knocking)

Come on!

[Narrator] Over 200 years ago,

Christmas in America looks much different

than it does today.

December, being the end of the harvest season,

was always a time of raucous celebration.

I mean, this is when people, you know, let loose.

Hey, open up!

Christmas, it had fallen into a license

for young men to get drunk,

to start bad behavior in the streets.

Merry Christmas to you then!

Letting off fireworks, shooting guns.

Come on!

A time that had nothing to do with Christianity.

There's no caroling,

no decorated Christmas trees.

[Clement] Gentlemen, please!

[Adam] In America prior to Santa...

Take some coin.

That was basically the case.

And be on your way.

[Narrator] And this man

will play a big part in creating the Santa Claus

we've all come to know and love.

You gotta think about what Santa Claus looked like

before he had Rudolph,

before he had Mrs. Claus,

a major shopping mall to sit in,

or even the North Pole.

(tense music)

[Narrator] The popular image of Santa evolves

from a stern Turkish bishop...

This is one of the first times

we see Santa Claus flying across the sky

in a horse-drawn wagon.

[Narrator] To the jolly fellow in red.

A belly that shakes like a bowl full of jelly

and rosy cheeks.

[Narrator] Some of the biggest names...

Mr. Washington Irving.

(group applauding)

[Narrator] And brands in U.S. history...

He's jolly, he's friendly.

He loves Coca-Cola.

[Narrator] Play a part in spreading his story.

Santa is wearing something that Uncle Sam might wear

if Uncle Sam was pretending to be Santa.

[Narrator] And his magic.

[Santa] Come say hi to Santa.

You don't just go from

being an obscure Mediterranean saint

to being one of the most famous faces on planet Earth.

You're gonna need a lotta help along the way.

[Narrator] This is the Santa

that America built.

(dramatic music)

[Santa] Ho ho ho!

(wagons clattering) (people murmuring)

[Narrator] In the early 19th century,

Christmastime in New York is far from joyous

as the city's population skyrockets.

New York City was becoming a preeminent port

of entry to the United States.

People are coming from all walks of life

and you start to see a real class struggle.

And the elites of New York view all the raucous behavior

in December as an embarrassment.

Christmas was historically a time for the working class

to blow off steam.

(tense music)

[Narrator] A tradition that dates back

to a Roman-era festival called Saturnalia.

- Saturnalia, misbehavior. - The world turned upside down.

It was a winter harvest celebration

that had nothing to do with Christianity.

There were explicit activities

which inverted social hierarchies.

Role reversal of the rich tentatively having

to give things back to the poor.

[Austin] People out in the streets getting a little rowdy.

- Be on your way. - Thank you, sir.

All these traditions make Christmas chaos.

It's time to make Christmas into something new.

- (laughing) - Come on!

(tense music)

[Narrator] Leading the charge to rebrand the holiday

and unite the city is one man in particular.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you

to John Pintard.

[Benjamin] John Pintard was a wealthy patrician,

very interested in New York history.

He helps form the New York Historical Society.

He helps build the Erie Canal.

He helps create the free school system.

And he was also a great observer of New York life.

Pintard gathers together a number

of wealthy and important people.

They wanted to elevate the status of New York,

while also restoring the identity of its quaint,

Dutch roots from when it was New Amsterdam.

He was very interested in seeing Christmas become

a more sort of family-oriented, wholesome holiday.

(group clapping)

[Narrator] Pintard believes the first step

to achieving this is to give New York a patron saint.

Every reputable, world-class city has a patron saint.

We need a saint.

So as a result,

he runs this charm campaign about Saint Nicholas,

an ancient Turkish saint.

(tense music)

Saint Nicholas was born around 270 AD

in what was now modern-day Turkey.

Saint Nicholas was a bishop

and he was renowned for his generosity of spirit.

Gift giving, if you will.

He had very wealthy parents.

And when they died, they left their full inheritance to him

and he gave it away to people that needed it.

St. Nicholas features rather heavily in Dutch traditions.

(bright music)

On December 5th, children would leave out their shoes,

filled by St. Nicholas in the dark of the night.

You hang your stockings on the fireplace

and somehow, they're filled while you're sleeping.

[Danielle] He would be in elaborate robes.

Bearing gifts for good children

and possibly having punishment for bad children.

Either riding a white horse

or riding a horse-drawn wagon like a farmer would have.

(tense music)

[Narrator] To spread the word about Ol' Saint Nick,

Pintard enlist the help of a brilliant young New Yorker.

And now, Mr. Washington Irving.

(group applauding)

So Washington Irving actually becomes very well known

later on for being the author of things like

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle."

But at the time, he's actually a lawyer

and a part-time writer.

[Narrator] In 1809, he publishes his first novel.

Irving writes this very strange history

called "Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York."

It was a comedic satire,

a funny take on the historical facts of New York.

The word knickerbocker then becomes sort

of an affectionate word for a New Yorker

and that's where we get something

like the New York Knicks later on.

But it also mentions St. Nicholas a lot.

Irving writes about the Dutch founder of New York

dreaming that St. Nicholas flew over the treetops

of New York and came into town.

And he creates an image

of St. Nicholas gliding across the night skies

in a horse-drawn carriage.

Wafting over the streets,

wreathed in smoke from his pipe,

and he will pop down chimneys to leave presents

for good little girls and boys.

So we begin to get this vivid picture of St. Nicholas

as this magical personage.

(bright music)

Irving's history book,

for lack of a better word, went effectively viral.

[Narrator] Irving's book brings the story

and magic of St. Nicholas to America

and starts to change the public's perception

of Christmas.

So this isn't quite Santa Claus, not yet.

But he is a gift giver.

He does still fill stockings and shoes with gifts,

but this is the bishop St. Nicholas.

(bright music)

(tense music)

[Narrator] It's not until a decade later

that a religious scholar takes the story a step further.

Clement Clarke Moore had served as the vice president

of the New York Historical Society

while Pintard was serving as secretary and treasurer.

Moore's dad was kind of a big deal.

He was an Episcopal bishop.

He gave last rites to Alexander Hamilton.

Clement Clarke Moore was also a wealthy landowner.

He inherited the land

that went on to become New York's Chelsea neighborhood.

That was his neighborhood.

Personally his.

Moore was a professor.

He was known mostly for his study of theology

and for writing a two-volume lexicon on the Hebrew language.

Clement Clarke Moore

had a kind of dour, stern look to him,

but underneath it all, he was a family man.

Sorry.

It's not much longer now, honey.

[Narrator] One with a surprising hobby.

In his spare time, Moore writes loving poems

for his children,

but in secret.

If you were a wealthy man

and the son of a bishop like Clement Clarke Moore,

you were expected to maintain a certain demeanor.

And so writing silly little poems might not have been

the best for his reputation.

So when Moore's daughter was very young,

he actually wrote her poem called

"From St. Nicholas," encouraging her to be good

because good children would receive gifts,

and that if she was a good girl,

she would receive books from St. Nicholas.

(tense music)

[Narrator] Then Moore comes across a new book

called "The Children's Friend."

[Steve] It was revolutionary.

[Brian] "A Children's Friend" was published

with original illustrations.

Santa Claus appears at Christmas Eve,

instead of December 5th.

He's being pulled in a sled led by one reindeer.

Wearing a fur suit and doing a lotta the things

that we currently associate with Santa Claus.

Despite having all these stories,

that book wasn't in print very long,

so it's been forgotten.

(tense music)

[Narrator] Inspired by the book,

Moore writes his kids a brand new poem.

[Danielle] "T'was the night before Christmas

when all through the house..."

"Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."

Happy Christmas!

[Narrator] But not every detail

in his poem comes from his imagination.

[Danielle] "When out on the lawn,

there arose such a clatter."

[Benjamin] Moore was reflecting on something

that would happen in real life.

"I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter."

[Reveler] Ah, come on!

Ruffians would come to your door

and bang on the door,

and they would be very raucous and very loud.

Gentlemen, please!

He's trying to make that experience into a safer one.

And be on your way.

Moore, just like a lot of the upper classes at the time,

wanted to create a new image of Christmas

that was more family friendly

and just generally less about drunkenness and revelry.

(tense music)

"With a little old driver so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick."

Saint Nicholas becomes round,

a belly that shakes like a bowl full of jelly

and rosy cheeks.

Except he's not someone that you can sit on his knee.

In fact, he's not human sized at all.

He's the size of an elf.

[Narrator] The poem also introduces us

to Santa's eight reindeer.

"Now Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen,

on Comet, on Cupid."

And then he names two reindeer

in Dutch, Donder and Bliksem.

Thunder and lightning.

And then eventually, it changes

to the German names, Donner and Blitzen.

(tense music)

T'was the night before Christmas

when all through the house...

Clement Clarke Moore reads this poem

for his three daughters, his wife Catharine,

and a female visitor.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

A woman named Harriet Butler,

whose father was a minister up in Troy, New York.

But I heard him exclaim ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night."

(laughing) (group clapping)

Harriet Butler actually loved the poem so much

and she wants to publish it,

but Moore actually wants nothing to do with it

and doesn't want it published.

Thank you.

(tense music)

She hears the poem

and then writes it down secretly in her diary.

Yeah, this is like something out of a spy novel.

So Moore has absolutely no idea

that there's a secret copy of his poem.

(tense music)

[Narrator] Clement Clarke Moore

has written a Christmas poem

for his daughters that will go down in history,

but he has no intention of sharing it with the world.

Harriet Butler thinks this is too good

for this one small family celebration.

Everybody's gotta hear this.

And she brings it to the newspaper offices

in Troy, New York and she publishes it,

not with Moore's name on it, but anonymously.

Once the poem hits the newspaper,

it becomes a viral sensation.

It's reprinted all over the country.

This was a serious religious scholar

and when he wrote the poem,

we have to assume it was just for his family.

He had no intention for this to take on the life that it did.

[Narrator] Despite the poem's success,

Moore remains silent for over two decades.

In 1844, Clement Clarke Moore finally fesses up

and he publishes a book of poems

and includes that poem in the collection.

(playful music)

Santa had rosy cheeks, red nose, twinkling eyes.

He had eight reindeer, they all had names,

and he and his reindeer

and his sleigh flew through the night.

That was the beginning of inspiring people

about Santa Claus.

The proof of the poem's appeal is the fact

that we are still reciting it today.

So Moore's poem actually spawned lots more

about Santa Claus because it becomes so popular.

So we hear more poems, books,

children's stories written about Santa as a result.

[Narrator] But it's not until 20 years later,

during one of America's darkest times,

that an iconic political cartoonist will look

to Santa to lift a nation's spirits.

In the Civil War, Americans rely on newspapers

as a primary source of information.

(gunfire popping)

And so with the rise in print media,

"Harper's Weekly" was really important.

"Harper's Weekly" was a an illustrated newspaper.

It looked more like a magazine by modern standards.

During the war period,

"Harper's" was one of the most powerful newspapers

for two reasons.

One was because it was in New York

and the second was because it had images.

For folks who couldn't read,

they were able to still gather some

of the story from these illustrations.

[Narrator] In 1862, "Harper's Weekly"

hires a young German immigrant

to work as their new illustrator.

Thomas Nast came to the United States at age six.

He didn't speak any English.

He dropped out of school at 13

as a consequence of finding school so painful

and started his career at 15.

Drawing was the way that he expressed what he thought,

who he was.

He could express himself fluently with his pencil.

You know, they say a picture speaks 1,000 words.

That is exactly how he communicated.

(bugle fanfare) (tense music)

[Narrator] Nast joins the paper

just as the war takes a turn for the worse.

In 1862 and leading into 1863,

the battles are getting bloodier

and bloodier, more and more costly.

The Union wasn't doing very well.

A lot of Americans in the North felt strongly

that the war was going badly.

The war is a very dark time for lots of reasons

and people needed some way to feel proud and happy.

Civic pride is at an all-time low.

So something has to be done.

Something has to give people hope.

(pensive music)

Given the dismal situation,

Nast decides to draw something encouraging,

magical, uplifting.

Nast relies on the uplifting nature

of Christmas and of St. Nicholas

to buoy the spirits of the fighting men

and, in fact, their families back home.

[Narrator] But Nast will give Santa

a lot more than just a new look.

He's the first guy to give us a glimpse

on what Santa's all about,

what his world looks like, where he goes, what he does.

(pensive music)

(tense music)

[Narrator] As 1862 draws to a close,

Thomas Nast is ready to reveal his version of Santa Claus

to a war-torn America.

He draws a picture of Santa Claus

in the Union trenches of the Civil War

and it is the first patriotic incarnation of Santa Claus.

He produces an image for readers of "Harper's Weekly"

which reassures them that the men in camp are actually happy,

that they are cared for by the state, but also by Santa.

The January 1863 edition of "Harper's" magazine

shows Santa arriving at a military post,

bringing gifts, surrounded by cheering Union troops.

[Fiona] Nast portrays Santa

in a way which is explicitly patriotic.

Stars on his jacket, stripes on his pants.

Santa is wearing something that Uncle Sam might wear

if Uncle Sam was pretending to be Santa.

The picture gave the magical seal of approval

to the Northern war effort.

Think about it.

What's more hopeful than a patriotic Saint Nick?

I mean, how can you lose when Santa is on your side?

[Narrator] Over the next two decades,

Nast continues to reveal new details about Santa's life.

There's a picture that Nast does in 1866

and in it, we learn where Santa lives.

This mysterious place called the North Pole.

(gentle music)

The North Pole had sort of

captivated the public's imagination

ever since the tragic disappearance

of famed explorer John Franklin in 1845,

who disappeared while seeking the Northwest Passage.

This was a great scandal and mystery

and so the attention of the general public

was focused on the Arctic during those years.

It's from Santa's home in the North Pole

that we find out he really keeps an eye

on who's naughty and who's nice.

[Michael] We also see him using a telescope to spy

on the behavior of kids.

Watching over the good children

and making a list of the naughty ones.

That idea is golden.

It's a way of keeping kids in check all year long.

[Narrator] As Santa keeps a watchful eye on children,

President Ulysses S. Grant works

to reunite a divided nation.

In 1870 U.S. Grant is deeply involved

in an effort to heal the wounds of the Civil War.

Grant is a family man,

interested in things which can help Americans

understand themselves as a unified people.

So President Grant declares Christmas a federal holiday.

(tense music)

[Narrator] As America experiences

a post-war economic boom in the early 1880s,

Nast adapts his image of Santa to fit the times.

You can see a lot of similarities

between the way Nast drew himself

and the way he drew Santa.

Nast had amassed quite a fortune

and was living a life that reflected that wealth.

As someone who was wide in the middle

but narrow at the ankles and shoulders.

[Benjamin] The rosy cheeks, the plump nose, the beard.

There's a playful and loving quality to Nast's Santa.

Thomas Nast actually gets credit

for giving Santa Claus a lot of things,

but his distinctively red outfit is not one of them.

Even Thomas Nast toggled between brown and red.

(bright music)

Though Thomas Nast is getting closer

to our modern Santa Claus,

he still can't get away from the fact

that he is, at heart, a political cartoonist.

[Michael] Instead of a giant sack of toys,

he's carrying an army-issue knapsack.

He also has a saber, a sword,

not something very Santa Claus like.

He's not all bowl full of cherries.

He's also bowl full of guns and steel.

(pensive music)

[Narrator] Nine years later,

Nast's image inspires the owner of a dry goods store,

Colonel James Edgar,

to forever change the way we connect with Santa.

Colonel Jim is a presence in town.

People know him, they know his store.

He's always the guy who's dressing up.

You know, there's always one in every town.

For the 4th of July, he's George Washington.

And he also has business savvy.

And it's that business savvy that sparks a revolution.

(bright music)

And at Christmas he's inspired by the 1881 image

by Thomas Nast of Santa Claus.

So he thinks, "I wonder if Santa

will inspire people to buy things."

He turned a legend into a salesman.

And why not? He's a merchant.

It was a perfect way to sell goods,

to bring people into his store.

He didn't expect it to become this wild sensation that it did,

but it was the first time that we put an image, a face,

a human face to Santa Claus.

James Edgar certainly changed the ballgame

for how we see Santa Claus.

(dramatic music)

[Narrator] Just before the turn of the century,

Colonel James Edgar introduces the magic of Santa

to the world of retail.

When James Edgar sees the image

of Thomas Nast's Santa Claus,

he realizes that he looks like Santa Claus.

Eventually, light bulb goes off.

The light bulb had been invented by this time,

so it's allowed to go off.

And he decides with his love of dressing up

to become a Santa Claus for shoppers in his store.

(pensive music)

It's brilliant.

Now, you have kids asking their parents to go to the store

where they can see Santa and spend more money.

He was totally overwhelmed at the response.

Children were lined up outside the store,

people were lined up around the store.

People were traveling in from Providence, Boston.

They wanted to see Santa Claus.

And it wasn't long before other stores

started hosting Santa Claus on their sales floors.

The department store Santa Claus changed Santa Claus

in a very important way.

But the ability to go meet him and sit in his lap,

this was an unprecedented level of access to the man himself.

But having so many Santa Clauses

causes a bit of confusion

for children who often wonder what's going on.

Who is the real Santa?

This presents a big problem for kids.

I mean, will the real Santa Claus please stand up?

Children started having doubts about Santa Claus,

including one child in particular

named Virginia O'Hanlon.

So an 1897, eight-year-old Virginia writes a letter

to the editor of "The New York Sun",

basically asking him if Santa Claus is real.

Her father said, well, if you read it in "The Sun,"

you can trust the answer.

So little Virginia asks, "Dear editor,

is there such a thing as Santa Claus?"

A guy named Francis Pharcellus Church, a very serious guy,

has no kids, goes to work,

and one day finds on his desk a letter.

[Danielle] Church responds in sort of a very loving way.

That begins, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."

And he begins to confirm Santa Claus

and to confirm the true magic of the holiday.

This is a letter addressing the power of hope and faith

and embracing the mysteries of life

as a way to perpetuate joy.

Adults are in it with the kids

and it's a tradition continued today.

Yes, Virginia leads inexorably

to every year NORAD tracking Santa's journey

across the United States airspace.

And it's just like what Francis Church said.

"1,000 years, nay, 10 times 10,000 years from now,

he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

[Narrator] Over the next two decades,

more and more stores host Santa,

setting the stage for one of the 20th century's

greatest retail rivalries.

In 1920, one of the most popular department stores

in the country was Gimbels.

Bernard Gimbel was a master marketer

who first realizes that Thanksgiving is really

the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

In 1920, Gimbels inaugurated a parade

in Center City, Philadelphia.

He brings on Santa at the very ending of his parade

in a firetruck, and he would climb the ladder

right into Gimbels' toy department.

It's an incredibly successful ploy.

It's an act of genius.

It is bringing people from the streets to the store.

Gimbels starts selling toys like crazy

and their arch competitor Macy's says,

two can play at that game.

[Announcer] Every year, the kids in New York are treated

to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

[Adam] Macy's launches an even grander,

larger Thanksgiving Day parade.

And the grand finale was when Santa Claus was brought in

on a horse-drawn float, crowned the king of Christmas,

his rightful place on a throne.

Macy's has Santa Claus coming in

at the very end of the parade,

signifying the beginning of Christmas season

and specifically the beginning

of the Christmas shopping season.

And that became something that was in the store

that people could come visit.

So this idea that Santa sits on this

elaborate, throne-like chair became part of the Santa story.

Macy and Gimbel are cutthroat around Christmas,

but it's the parades that ultimately

really separate the two.

In fact, the very first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

is seen by a quarter million people.

It was the biggest and the best of its kind

and it really established a new home

for Santa Claus at Macy's in New York City.

(pensive music)

[Narrator] As Santa sets up shop at Macy's,

a struggling beverage company down South

desperately needs a bit of Santa's magic too.

In the 1920s,

the leading soft drink in the country was Moxie.

Moxie was a sparkling beverage

that was both sweet and bitter

and it certainly was an acquired taste.

So Moxie had established its brand

by spending a lot of money on advertising.

Believe it or not, in the 1920s,

Coca-Cola was actually the underdog in the soda pop wars.

[Narrator] Especially at the start

of the Great Depression in late October of 1929.

[Announcer] Stocks collapsed, factories shut down,

businesses passed out of existence,

and the ranks of those already unemployed swelled

into a huge army.

During the Great Depression, sales for Coca-Cola fell

by about $1.1 million,

which is about $40 million roughly today.

So while most companies like Moxie Soda decided

to reduce their budget to account for losses,

Coca-Cola actually decided to expand its advertising.

Coca-Cola has to get their way out of the hole.

But Coca-Cola's got a problem.

How do you increase sales of a summer beverage

in the off months during the Great Depression?

[Narrator] Their solution is a shiny new ad campaign

persuading the public to enjoy Coke all year round.

Coca-Cola hires 31-year-old Haddon Sundblom

pretty much to save the company.

But this is a huge risk.

I mean, this is the Great Depression we're talking about.

Money is tight everywhere.

But Coca-Cola needs the win.

And they think a fresh, new image of Santa

is the answer to how they can get it.

(tense music)

[Narrator] In the dark days of the Great Depression,

Coca-Cola has a risky plan to turn their fortune around.

You have to remember, a lot of companies

aren't pouring money into their advertising campaigns,

but Coca-Cola does the exact opposite.

[Narrator] They're banking on Santa's

ever-growing popularity to take them to the top.

In 1931, Coca-Cola hires an illustrator

to create a new image of Santa Claus for the holidays.

Coca-Cola tells Haddon Sundblom,

we've gotta go back to the source.

Consult "A Visit from St. Nicholas"

by Clement Clarke Moore.

Take that jolliness that's depicted by Moore.

He wanted people to associate those feelings with Coca-Cola.

In Moore's poem, he describes Santa Claus

as plump, rosy cheeks, whiskers.

He almost directs Sundblom of how to draw Santa Claus.

Sundblom takes Moore's text, Nast's cartoons,

merges them together, colorizes it for a modern era.

And now we've got brand-new Santa Claus.

We start to see sort of a more standardized Santa emerge,

as being always in red with fur trim.

(bright music)

But what made the Sundblom version of Santa

so distinctive from earlier versions is

that he was sort of larger than life.

With Haddon Sundblom's image of Santa Claus,

we see Santa as someone

that just kind of emits like, warmth.

[Danielle] He was tall, but also very round,

very jolly, rosy cheeked.

A long, white beard and a big, fat belly.

He radiates joy.

[Narrator] Coca-Cola's bet on Santa and Haddon Sundblom

pays off in a big way.

Sundblom's Santa did everything that Coke wanted.

They ended up outselling Moxie

and becoming the most popular soda in the world.

It didn't take long for Coca-Cola

to overtake the beverage industry

after they defined what Santa Claus was.

It was a good advertising strategy

that really helped Coca-Cola survive the Great Depression.

[Narrator] Every year for the next 30 years,

Coca-Cola commissions a new portrait

of Santa Claus from Sundblom.

One of the things that Haddon Sundblom did

with his image of Santa Claus

is that he gave it consistency.

We get this image of Santa

that's repeated over and over for decades

and sort of became the standard image of Santa

that we think of today.

If I were to picture Santa Claus today,

I'm probably picturing the Coca-Cola Santa Claus.

It's that iconic.

This is Santa Claus as we know him.

[Narrator] But there's one last part

of Santa's story left to tell.

(tense music)

And it comes from a man who's always felt like an outsider.

Robert May is a 35-year-old copywriter

for Montgomery Ward,

one of the nation's largest retailers and catalog houses.

Robert May felt like an underdog.

He was picked on as a kid.

He understood what it felt like to not be on top.

His job is to write descriptions of men's shirts,

women's dresses, appliances,

really mundane, workaday writer job.

[Narrator] As America comes out of the Great Depression,

the holiday shopping season is back in full swing.

Montgomery Ward gives away books at Christmas time

to keep the kids occupied while the parents are shopping.

And these are coloring books and easy-to-read books,

but they get them from a third party.

But in 1939, they wanted to do something different.

To save costs, rather than buying from a third party,

they were going to produce their own book in house.

So May's boss comes up to him

and says, "You're going to write a children's book

for this Christmas season and I want you to base it

on another popular children's book of the day,

'Ferdinand the Bull.'"

(book thuds)

Animal stories are popular.

"Ferdinand the Bull" is a popular story.

He's never written a children's book in his life.

[Brian] May always dreamed of better things,

but here he was, approaching middle age,

and working it out day after day.

He was having trouble reaching his dreams.

He was in debt.

[Gerry] His wife is dying of cancer.

He has one small daughter.

(pensive music)

May doesn't have a lotta choices.

He's got a family to support

and he needs an idea and he needs it quick.

And what he comes up with is one

of the most inspiring Christmas tales

that has to do with Santa.

(tense music)

[Narrator] Desperate for a new children's book idea,

Robert May feels the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Robert May's boss asks him to write something,

but he is really stuck for inspiration.

Robert May was used to basically

this general life of writing copy,

not really being that creative.

But he is trying,

'cause he has a young family that he has to support.

Not only is it intimidating,

but the pressure must have been incredible.

(tense music)

[Narrator] In order to deliver his book on time,

May burns the candle at both ends.

He's trying to crack this story,

but nothing's working

until he sees something and it changes everything.

May was looking out a window on a foggy Chicago night

and saw a red light blinking.

Montgomery Ward is located in Chicago

and it certainly can get quite foggy

when you have the lake right there.

He thinks to himself,

how would Santa get around in the fog?

And out it pours,

this idea of this strange, little, red-nosed reindeer.

(tense music)

May certainly felt like an underdog

and he was able to use part of that.

He writes it in the spirit of how he lives.

I mean, he sort of finds inspiration

in his own misfit qualities.

You know, that becomes the sort of theme of this story.

He writes the classic American tale.

A loner, someone who's misunderstood,

but has a secret talent

and just can't wait to show the world what they've got.

(dramatic music)

[Narrator] After experimenting with various names,

May settles on Rudolph.

If things had gone another way,

we could have ended up

with Roland or Reggie the Red-Nose Reindeer.

[Narrator] But before he finishes his story,

tragedy strikes.

Halfway through writing the story,

Robert May's wife dies of cancer.

And so his bosses at Montgomery Ward

offered him an out.

They said, "We understand

if you don't wanna complete the assignment."

But May said he needed Rudolph then more than ever.

He just wasn't giving up.

He was gonna keep going

and he wasn't gonna stop until he made it happen.

[Narrator] Working through his grief,

Robert May delivers his completed children's book

just in time for the 1939 Christmas season.

That year, Montgomery Ward gave away over 2 million copies

of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

I'm not sure that Montgomery Ward

was prepared for the success

that the Rudolph book was gonna have.

It is a huge success.

[Narrator] In 1946,

the store gives away a record 3 million copies to shoppers.

Even though they were giving them away,

it was leading to people shopping at Montgomery Ward.

And the store makes millions of dollars that year,

but he gets really nothing out of it.

He's left empty handed.

He didn't get the money he deserved.

He didn't get the recognition he deserved.

He might be red, but not from his nose.

His face might be red 'cause he ain't getting no green.

So in 1947, Robert May goes to his bosses

and asks for the copyright to the character,

and they give it to him.

Montgomery Ward didn't realize what they were sitting on.

And when he gets the copyright,

he goes to his brother-in-Law, who's a songwriter.

His brother-in-law, Johnny Marks,

will eventually become known for hits like

"Have a Holly Jolly Christmas"

and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree."

But at this point,

he hasn't written a single Christmas song.

[Narrator] After turning the book into a song,

Marks asks an iconic singer to lend his voice.

He brought it to country music legend,

cowboy singer, Gene Autry.

And when Gene Autry sings it,

well, then it becomes the stuff of legend.

The song becomes the standard we know today.

[Narrator] "Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer"

hits number one on the U.S. charts the year it's released.

70 years later, in 2019,

the song peaks again at number 16.

The story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,

a little underdog who goes on to do big things,

mirrors that of Robert May himself.

It is so popular

and they just bring in a massive amount of money.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer makes him so much money,

he's able to put several children through college.

I can relate to Rudolph.

It's like, you thought you had something

that everyone was not gonna like

and then it ends up saving Christmas?

That's the most wonderful thing.

Your specialty, something that was different about you

that people made fun of you about,

actually made things a lot better.

It's a good lesson to learn.

It's really the last piece of the puzzle

as to how Santa and Christmas becomes the holiday it is.

[Narrator] Today, over 280 million people

celebrate Christmas in America.

Santa Claus is a story that's been transmitted

through the home for 200 years.

(bright music)

He's our first exposure to the magic of Christmas.

Santa Claus is part of a tradition that defines a season.

And as a child, it was always something to look forward to.

Even as someone who is not of the faith

that Christmas comes from,

I still get the Christmas spirit.

And point of fact, "It's A Wonderful Life"

is my all-time favorite movie.

(elegant music)

Try explaining that to my rabbi.

Life hits hard sometimes

and you see it with some of your friends maybe,

and you feel like they lost a little bit

of that childlike wonderment that they had.

When you stop believing, you're really letting go of that.

And I feel like you have to try to hold onto it.

I still believe in a lotta ways

and I want my kid to believe too.

Santa Claus is something that we pass on to our children

and our children's children.

So it stays with us all throughout our lives.

(triumphant music)