Hermey — Rudolph

Hermey the Misfit Elf from the 1964 Rankin/Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer TV special — the elf in Santa’s workshop who doesn’t want to make toys, he wants to be a dentist. Reads as the first misfit of the movie: he runs away from the workshop because he doesn’t fit in there, meets Rudolph (also a misfit) on the road, the two of them team up with Yukon Cornelius, and at the climax it’s Hermey’s dentistry that takes Bumble’s teeth out and turns the antagonist into a friend. The chart freezes him mid-skate in his iconic look — blonde hair flip, blue-and-pink striped pointy elf hat, blue tunic with belt, ice skates on his feet.

This is piece 2 of 6 from an out-of-print Dimensions kit — Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Plastic Canvas Christmas Ornament Counted Cross Stitch Kit. The full set, visible on the kit cover (second image), is Hermey, Santa, Rudolph, Clarice, Bumble, and Sam the Snowman. I’ll be adding the other four as separate gallery entries as I finish them.

The kit is OOP so the original kit-supplied threads aren’t replaceable — I converted the Dimensions colours to DMC equivalents and stitched it in DMC, same approach as the Bumble piece.

Rather than the kit’s intended plastic canvas, I’m stitching the whole set on 32ct Be Stitch Me Opalescent Middle Earth Lugana I had in my stash — same fabric across all six characters so they read as a matched set when they’re all up on the tree, with the iridescent thread in the weave catching light around each figure.

Threads are DMC throughout, with black backstitch doing the linework — the elf-hat curl, the pointed ears, eyes, mouth, belt, and the cross-hatched ice-skate blades under his feet.

Finished December 8, 2024.