Today, merry, as in "merry Christmas" suggests gaiety, a mood for celebration, but its original meaning was quite different. For example, the carol we sing as "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen, should read "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen." The word was at least four hundred years old when it was first written down in 1827, and at the time merry didn't mean joyous, but rather, peaceful or pleasant.In 1939, when Robert May, a copywriter for Montgomery Ward, wrote a promotional Christmas poem for that Chicago department store, its principal character was Rollo the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but the corporate executives didn't like that name, nor did they approve of May's second suggestion, "Reginald". It was May's four year old daughter who came up with "Rudolph," for the title for a Christmas Classic.
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