The holiday season is here and that means it’s time to make room in your life for all the beloved Christmas traditions. For some people that means enjoying Christmas romantic comedies, for others it means action Christmas classics like Die HardBut no matter what your viewing habits are, some things are simply essential in almost every household.

Which brings us to this Rudolph the red-nosed reindeerthe popular stop-motion animated special from Rankin/Bass Productions that originally aired on NBC. This year, for the first time since the 1970s, Rudolf will return to its home network and celebrate its 60th anniversary with a special expanded version. Here you will find everything you need to know about the special and its joy NBC Holiday homecoming.

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The Story of Rankin/Bass’ Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

Christmas TV specials as we know them today didn’t really take shape until the 1960s, when networks looked for family-friendly ways to broadcast during the holiday season. In 1964, e.g NBC and General Electric, that meant a special based on the holiday story “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” which began as a poem by Robert L. May in the 1930s and gained popularity in the 1940s thanks to a song based on the poem Johnny Marks. To make this happen, they turned to Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass and their company Videocraft International, which had already produced the TV special Return to Oz for General Electric and NBC.

Many of the same talents are involved Return to Oz returned for Rudolph, including director Larry Roemer and writer Romeo Muller. The idea was simple: take the premise of the song, expand it to include various supporting characters and a meaningful journey, and package it as appointment television for families. And it worked, thanks to the music, the star power of singer-actor Burl Ives as the show’s narrator, Sam the Snowman, and the “animagic” stop-motion style used by Videocraft and their partners in Tokyo, MOM Productions. Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer became a regular feature of the season and has been broadcast on American television every year since. And because other long-running favorites like it A Charlie Brown Christmas And How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Airs Thursday, December 5 at 8 p.m. ET NBC), released later, it remains the longest-running TV Christmas special in the history of the medium, at six decades and more than name.

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and NBC

Although NBC Was RudolfThe beloved reindeer hasn’t been a guest at Peacock, the station’s original TV home, for some time. After the special aired in 1964 NBC retained the license for several more years and broadcast it annually until 1972.

This year, Rudolf has moved to another network house, and although it has remained a permanent fixture, it will be the first time in 2024 NBC has aired the special for more than 50 years. And to make things even more special, NBC will be broadcast Rudolf To December 6th at 8pm ETthe same night the show premiered 60 years ago. It’s a real homecoming celebration, but if you miss it, don’t worry. NBC will also air an encore presentation of the special December 12th at 8pm ETso set up your DVRs.

The legacy of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

The success of Rudolf in 1964 caused a ripple effect that we can still feel today in our Christmas celebrations. Because NBC After their success, other broadcasters and production companies felt encouraged to cook their own Christmas specialties. The very next year, Coca-Cola sponsored A Charlie Brown Christmasduring two years later How the Grinch Stole Christmas came to television courtesy of legendary animator Chuck Jones. Since then, it’s become a holiday tradition to take popular characters known from other media and give them TV specials, which means you did it Rudolf to thank for everything Shrek the halls (airs Wednesday, December 11 at 8:30 p.m. ET NBC) To Toy Story That Time Forgot.

But Rudolf has not only inspired other production companies. The success of their red-nosed reindeer story ultimately led Rankin and Bass to continue down the path of the Christmas special. In 1969 they produced Frosty the snowmana traditional animated special inspired by another popular Christmas song that also happens to be airing NBC this holiday season (watch Thursday, December 5, 8:30 p.m. ET and Wednesday, December 11, 8:00 p.m. ET).

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In 1968, Videocraft changed its name to Rankin/Bass Productions and in the 1970s the company became synonymous with Christmas specials, producing stop-motion classics such as Santa Claus is coming to town And The year without Santa Clausalong with traditionally animated hits like It was the night before Christmas. Rudolph even got his own franchise and appeared in the sequel Rudolf‘S Shiny new year in 1976 and the crossover Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July in 1979. Over time, the stop-motion animation synonymous with Rankin/Bass simply became synonymous with Christmas and was recognized across the board Eleven to a Christmas episode of Community.

So you see, Rudolf is more than just a Christmas special. It’s a watershed moment from which much of our Christmas pop culture emerges, and it remains must-see viewing for Christmas TV fans everywhere.

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” returns to NBC on December 6th at 8:00 pm ET and will air in an encore presentation on December 12th at 8:00 pm ET.