A Chicago Christmas-- Part 7: The Marshall Field's Elf

In 1946, Marshall Field's introduced Uncle Mistletoe, a "black-browed, winged sprite, wearing a cape and top hat," to compete with Montgomery Ward's popular creation, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Uncle Mistletoe lived with his wife, Aunt Holly, in Cozy Cloud Cottage on the eighth floor of the iconic department store.

Uncle Mistletoe's popularity soared with the 1948 debut of his holiday television program, "The Adventures of Uncle Mistletoe."

Uncle Mistletoe occasionally appears in ornament form on "The Great Tree" in Marshall Field's' (well, now Macy's) Walnut Room.

--CootUnc

A Chicago Christmas-- Part 2: About Rudolph the You-Know What

These are Christmas stories connected to Chicago.

Robert L. May wanted to be a novelist but worked as a catalog writer at Montgomery Ward in Chicago.  Staring out his office window at downtown Chicago on a foggy day, May experienced his own lightbulb moment.

"Suddenly I had it!  A nose!  A bright red nose that would shine through the fog like a spotlight."

May considered naming the tiny reindeer with the red nose "Rollo" or "Reginald" but eventually settled on "Rudolph."

The Chicago-based department store printed more than two million copies of May's book "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" in 1939.

The ninth and youngest of Santa's reindeer flew straight into the hearts of children across America using his luminous red nose to light the way.

--CootDeer