Bullying And A Holiday Classic

One of the Christmas classics that I used to wait around all year for to show up on my television set in our cozy living room in Wilson, was Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.  It was one of my favorites, along with Charlie Brown and The Grinch.  Now I don't have to wait, because through the magic of DVD, it is with us year-round, so we can pretty much watch it any time, (even though it still doesn't make an appearance until the holidays.)

We watched it the other night with the kids, and I came to a conclusion that never really occurred to me before.  Rudolph was bullied.  And I don't mean that to be funny or sarcastic, but he was the victim of some pretty bad hazing.  By Santa as well, if the other reindeer wasn't bad enough!  Ridicule and mean-spirited jokes  finally drove him to run away.  His own father treated him poorly.  And even the poor elf that just wanted to be a dentist.  He also had to leave to escape ridicule.

I guess that I never really saw it that way when I was little, but seeing it now, it's almost laughable how cruel everyone was to them.  It wasn't until the end, when the others needed their different skill sets to help them, that they came around.  I know, maybe this was something everybody realized but me up until now, but I just found it interesting given what goes on today. 

Maybe kids today can still learn something valuable from a holiday classic that's been around as long as me.