IT'S THE NIGHT FOR THE ANNUAL NETWORK BROADCAST OF, "RUDOLPH"...........

In little over a half hour, one of the most beloved Christmas characters, of the past seventy two years - "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer", will be broadcast for the forty eighth consecutive year on network televcision, with an 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time airing onty CBS - TV, (in Sacramento 7 p.m., on KOVR CBS 13;).  Created as a Christmas booklet sales character by Montgomery Ward Department stores in 1939, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer was popularized in the 1949, as a Christmas song, written and composed by Johnny Marks, and first sung by New York City crooner Harry Brannon in early November, and even more successfully by singing cowboy star, Gene Autry, on November 25, 1949.  In December 1964, it became the iconic television Christmas special, and yours truly then 8 years old, was watching it on the night it premiered.  For over fifteen years I have owned a personal copy of the Rudolph television special video, but still find it very special to view the network broadcast, when my schedule allows me.  Children of all ages are certain to be tuned in tonight and watch our beloved red nosed friend come through for Santa on Christmas Eve.  Thanks Rudolph, for entertaining, inspiring, and engaging, us from the time of your 1939 Montgomery Wards Christmas booklet; through more than sixty years of your  Christmas carol song, to the four dozen years of your  television Christmas special...........Christmas Is Brighter And Better Because Of You,   Fr.  Troy