by Peter Schiff, Schiff Gold:
‘Tis the season for Christmas specials.
I’m not going to lie – even as a grown man, I love watching Christmas specials. Snoopy decorating his dog house. The Grinch folding up the Christmas tree like an umbrella and stuffing it up the chimney. And Frosty the snowman melting in the greenhouse.
There are a lot of great memories in those shows.
But today, in the spirit of the season, I’m going to mess with one of your Christmas special memories!
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My all-time favorite Christmas special is Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve loved Rudolph.
I still do.
It was different then though. We had to wait until the shows came on TV. I think that’s lost on a lot of people today in our world of on-demand streaming. I used to scour the TV guide from our local newspaper beginning in the first week of December (boy, I’m dating myself) eagerly waiting to see Rudolph pop up on the schedule.
Mom always made an event out of it, making me a special Christmas treat – maybe a hot chocolate or apple cider. Sometimes, I even got freshly baked cookies.
Here’s a confession: when I was really little, the abominable snow monster horrified me.
In retrospect, I have to wonder why. Remember when he tipped over? The bottom of his feet looked just like the bottom of my footie pajamas. How did I not notice that? How did I not realize that the abominable was a total fake?
I guess a 5-year-old has limited powers of observation.
But other than being scared of the PJ-footed snow monster, I loved the show as a little kid. And as I said, I still do.
Now, as a guy who writes about gold and silver for a living, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Yukon Cornelius. As you recall, he wandered the north in search of silver and gold. But I bet you don’t know the whole story behind old Yukon. Because the version most of us watched on TV as kids cut it out.
I kid you not!
You’ll recall that when Cornelius meets Rudolph and the elf Hermey, he launched into a dramatic and emphatic introduction.
The name’s Yukon Cornelius, the greatest prospector in the north! And you know, it’s rich with gold! Gold! Gold and silver! Silver and gold! Wahooo!”
He punctuates his greeting by tossing his pickaxe in the air, licking it, and declaring, “Nothin’.”
This pickaxe toss and lick behavior repeat throughout the show. When you stop and think about it, it’s kind of weird. And maybe a little gross. But I never thought about that as a kid. Of course, this is the same kid who didn’t notice the snow monster was wearing footed pajamas.
On a side note, how did his tongue not freeze to the metal in the frozen arctic?
Anyway, you almost certainly think Yukon was hoping to discover riches in the form of gold and/or silver. That’s certainly the impression the show gives you.
Well, you think wrong!
He’s not looking for gold or silver!
Now for those of you who grew up on network TV, you know that things were often edited for commercials. This was the case with Rudolph. CBS deleted the scene that explains exactly what Yukon was looking for. Rick Goldschmidt wrote a book on Rudolph and calls this “the most significant deleted scene.” An article in the Huffington Post explains what happened.
