"A Visit from St. Nicholas" (also known as "The Night Before Christmas" and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" from its first line) is a poem first published anonymously in 1823. It is generally attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, although it has also been claimed that it was written by Henry Livingston Jr. It is largely responsible for the conception of Santa Claus from the mid-nineteenth century to today, including his physical appearance, the night of his visit, his mode of transportation, the number and names of his reindeer, and the tradition that he brings toys to children. Prior to the poem, American ideas about St. Nicholas and other Christmastide visitors varied considerably. The poem has influenced ideas about St. Nicholas and Santa Claus beyond the United States to the rest of the English-speaking world and beyond.
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danc'd in their heads,
And Mama in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap —
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters, and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow,
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a minature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and call'd them by name: "Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer and Vixen, "On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Donder and Blitzen;
"To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!
"Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"
As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys — and St. Nicholas too:
And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound:
He was dress'd all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnish'd with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys was flung on his back,
And he look'd like a peddler just opening his pack:
His eyes — how they twinkled! His dimples: how merry,
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face, and a little round belly
That shook when he laugh'd, like a bowl full of jelly:
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laugh'd when I saw him in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And fill'd all the stockings; then turn'd with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprung to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle:
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight —
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
—Clement Clark Moore
On Christmas Eve, while his wife and children sleep, a man awakens to noises outside his house. Looking out the window, he spies landing on his roof St. Nicholas in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. The saint enters the house through the chimney. The man watches Nicholas filling the children's stockings hanging by the fire. They share a conspiratorial moment before the saint bounds up the chimney again. As he flies away, Nicholas wishes everyone a happy Christmas.
Literary history
The poem was first published anonymously in the Troy, New York, Sentinel on December 23, 1823, and was reprinted frequently thereafter with no name attached. Authorship was later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore and the poem was included in an 1844 anthology of his works.1
Moore's wife was of Dutch descent, being a descendant of the Van Cortlandt family via her mother.
In An American Anthology, 1787–1900, Edmund Clarence Stedman, editor, reprinted the Moore version of the poem, including the German spelling of "Donder and Blitzen" he adopted, rather than the earlier Dutch version from 1823, "Dunder and Blixem". Both phrases translate as "Thunder and Lightning" in English, though the German word for thunder is "Donner", and the words in modern Dutch would be "Donder en Bliksem".
Today, some printings alter the grammar and spelling of the poem and replace somewhat archaic words, such as ere, with ones more familiar to modern readers. The final line, originally written as "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night", has been changed in many later editions to "'Merry Christmas' to all", in accord with the standard Christmas greeting current in North America.
Original copies
Four hand-written copies of the poem are known to exist, and three are in museums. The fourth copy, written out and signed by Clement Clarke Moore as a gift to a friend in 1860, was sold by one private collector to another in December, 2006. According to Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries, which brokered the private sale, it was purchased for $280,000 U.S. by an unnamed "chief executive officer of a media company" who resides in the Manhattan section of New York City. Newswire reports at the time made no mention of the authorship controversy.2
Authorship controversy
Clement C. Moore's connection with the verses has been questioned by Professor Donald Foster, an expert on textual content analysis. Foster used external and internal evidence to argue that Moore could not have been the author of this poem3. Major Henry Livingston, Jr., a New Yorker with Dutch and Scottish roots, is considered the chief candidate for authorship, if Moore did not write it. Livingston was distantly related to Moore's wife.3
On behalf of Moore, the following facts are cited: Professor Moore (of the General Theological Seminary in New York) is credited by his friend Charles Hoffman as author in the December 25, 1837, Pennsylvania Inquirer and Daily Courier. Further, the Rev. David Butler, who allegedly showed the poem to Sentinel editor Orville L. Holley, was a relative of Moore's. A letter to Moore from the publisher states "I understand from Mr. Holley that he received it from Mrs. Sackett, the wife of Mr. Daniel Sackett who was then a merchant in this city"citation needed. Moore allowed the poem to be included in his anthology in 1844. (This was at the request of his children. He had preferred to be known for more scholarly workscitation needed.)
Against Moore, the following charges are alleged: Moore "tried at first to disavow" the poem4. Moore claimed that only two changes were introduced in the first printing, yet it differs from his own on 23 pointscitation needed. It is also claimed that Moore falsely claimed to have translated a book5. Document historian Seth Kaller has challenged this claim as a misinterpretation of a book dedication6. According to Kellar, Moore signed the translation as a gift to the New-York Historical Society, as one might dedicate a book they give to another person. He did not claim authorship.
The following points have been advanced in order to credit the poem to Major Henry Livingston, Jr: First, that Livingston also wrote poetry primarily using an anapaesticmetrical scheme. Second, it is also claimed that some of the phraseology of A Visit is consistent with other poems by Livingston and that Livingston's poetry is more optimistic than Moore's poetry published in his own name. But Stephen Nissenbaum argues in his Battle for Christmas that the poem could have been a social satire of the Victorianization of Christmas6. Furthermore, Kaller claims that Foster cherry-picked only the poems that fit his thesis and that many of Moore's unpublished works have a tenor, phraseology and meter similar to A Visit6. Moore had even written a letter entitled "From Saint Nicholas" that may have predated 18236.
Also, Foster asserts that Livingston's mother was Dutch, which accounts for the references to the Dutch Sinteklaes tradition and the use of the Dutch names "Dunder and Blixem". Against this claim, it is suggested by Kaller6 that Moore, a friend of writer Washington Irving and member of the same literary society, may have acquired some of his knowledge of New York Dutch traditions from Irving. Irving had written A History of New York in 1809 under the name of "Dietrich Knickerbocker". It includes several references to legends of St. Nicholas, including the following which bears a close relationship to the poem:
And the sage Oloffe dreamed a dream, — and lo, the good St. Nicholas came riding over the tops of the trees, in that self-same wagon wherein he brings his yearly presents to children, and he descended hard by where the heroes of Communipaw had made their late repast. And he lit his pipe by the fire, and sat himself down and smoked; and as he smoked, the smoke from his pipe ascended into the air and spread like a cloud overhead. And Oloffe bethought him, and he hastened and climbed up to the top of one of the tallest trees, and saw that the smoke spread over a great extent of country; and as he considered it more attentively, he fancied that the great volume of smoke assumed a variety of marvellous forms, where in dim obscurity he saw shadowed out palaces and domes and lofty spires, all of which lasted but a moment, and then faded away, until the whole rolled off, and nothing but the green woods were left. And when St. Nicholas had smoked his pipe, he twisted it in his hatband, and laying his finger beside his nose, gave the astonished Van Kortlandt a very significant look; then, mounting his wagon, he returned over the tree-tops and disappeared.
Being a very well-known poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas" has inspired many parodies8 and references in popular culture.
Literature
James Thurber’s parody, “A Visit from Saint Nicholas IN THE ERNEST HEMINGWAY MANNER,” which originally appeared in the December 24, 1927 issue of The New Yorker.
The children's book The Cajun Night Before Christmas offers a Cajun version of the classic tale, written in Cajun dialect and changing the scene to a Louisiana swamp and the saint's vehicle to a skiff pulled by alligators.9
A "Canonical List of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas Variations" has nearly a thousand versions of the classic poem.10
In 1986 Lance Corporal James M. Schmidt penned Merry Christmas, My friend. A Marine's version of "Twas the Night Before Christmas". The story behind it and the original work may be found here: http://www.gospelweb.net/Christmas/marinechristmaspoem.htm
Americannu metal band Korn released a promotional 12" single in 1993, shortly after their signing with Immortal Records. A very limited number of copies were pressed of this single; it featured two versions of their "A Visit from St. Nicholas" parody: "Christmas Song (Squeak by the FCC version)" and "Christmas Song (Blatant FCC Violation version)".11
In the Dave Van Ronk song "Yas Yas Yas", the poem is parodied in the verse "'twas the night before Christmas, all was quiet in the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse, when from the lawn there came a big crash. It was Father Christmas landing on his yas yas yas."
In a 1939 recording included in the Nimbus Records collection Prima Voce: The Spirit of Christmas Past, actor Basil Rathbone reads the poem.
The poem was set to music by Ken Darby and recorded by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians in 1942 in an arrangement by Harry Simeone. It was also performed at Christmastime airings of Fibber McGee and Molly, usually introduced by Teeny, the neighbor girl, as their "Christmas Carol".
In the 1961 Bell Telephone Hour television program A Trip to Christmas, a version of the poem is performed offscreen by hostess Jane Wyatt and a chorus, and enacted onscreen by the Bil Baird Marionettes.
In the film National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) reads the story to his extended family, but changes the narrative when he looks out the window and sees Cousin Eddie and Eddie's kidnapped hostage (Clark's boss) approaching the house. Instead of describing the "miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer", Clark describes the strange event taking place in his front yard.
In the movie Die Hard, Theo alerts his friends to the SWAT team's arrival with the opening line of this poem.12
In WeeSing's "The Best Christmas Ever", the father of the Smith family, named Larry, said the last part of this story. Later, Johnny says the entire story to himself while the end credits roll.
Radio and television
A 1950s TV presentation performed almost entirely by marionettes, "The Spirit of Christmas[2]" is "brought to you by 'Your Telephone Company'". Alexander Scourby narrates and the Mabel Beaton Marionettes eerily move about.
Some Christmastime airings of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy had Charlie McCarthy trying to recite the poem from memory, resulting in such hilarious lines as "The stockings were hung by the chimney with care/In hopes that the laundryman soon would be there" (a few times the line went "In hopes that the room could stand some fresh air"), "He flies through the air with the greatest of ease/The jolly old elf in the red BVD's" and "Now, Dasher, Now, Dancer, and what do you know/Dasher and Dancer paid $220 to show!"
At the beginning of the series 9 episode "The One with Christmas in Tulsa" of Friends, Phoebe sings the last four lines of The Night Before Christmas, from "He sprang to his sleigh" to the end, to Joey, claiming she wrote it.
In A Muppet Family Christmas, the Muppets from Sesame Street perform a play based on the poem, with Ernie narrating as the father (the main character) and Bert as Mamma (he lost a coin toss). The monsters appear as the reindeer, with the Two-Headed Monster as Santa (and Grover as the mouse who is not stirring, literally). The narration omits the line "The children were nestled, all snug in their bed(s)/While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads", because of the homosexuality rumor.citation needed Ernie also mentions that the poem was written by Clement Moore.
In the Barney and the Backyard Gang special "Waiting for Santa", Barney reads the story to Michael and Amy he has befriended, all while Santa himself is in the living room of the house doing his usual work. He falls asleep just as he comes to "With a little old driver, so lively and quick/I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick". Santa whispers the last quotation to the camera after that.
Episode 55 of Animaniacs featured a skit titled "The Day Before Christmas", in which Ralph the Guard is given the task of delivering Yakko, Wakko, and Dot's Christmas presents. The short is presented as a bedtime story told by Slappy Squirrel to her nephew Skippy and is narrated in the poetic form as the original story. This cartoon was adapted into comic book form in a special comic book published by DC Comics in October 1994.
A hip-hop animated version of the poem was made as an hour long animated special, The Night B4 Christmas.
An animated video parody called "Mikey the Squirrel's Night Before Christmas" satires how commercialism has changed Christmas.
Comics
In the Garfield comic strips published during the week of December 19–24, 1983, the text of the poem was drawn above scenes of Garfield acting out the part of the narrator.
Issue 40 of the DC comic book Young Justice (published in 2001) is a full-length parody of the poem. Unusually for a comic book, it features no panels or word balloon, only full-page illustrations accompanied by rhyming text. In the story, Santa sacrifices his life to save the world from a vengeful alien villain (though it's implied he'll be reborn next Christmas) and the teen heroes are stuck with the task of delivering all his gifts.
Other
For Christmas 1985, the Internet Engineering Task Force circulated an RFC document that was actually a poem about the early days of the Internet, titled "Twas the Night Before Start-up".13
There is a poem centered on the computer game Doom called "The Night Before Doom" which appears in the Official DOOM F.A.Q.14
There is a Pokémon version of this poem on the CD Pokémon Christmas Bash.
References
^Siefker, Phyllis (1997). Santa Claus,. McFarland & Company. pp. 4. ISBN0786402466.
^Trosclair (September 1992) [1973]. Cajun Night Before Christmas. Night Before Christmas Series (20th Anniversary Edition ed.). Pelican Publishing Company. ISBN0-882-89940-6.
Gardner, Martin (1991). The Annotated Night Before Christmas: A Collection Of Sequels, Parodies, And Imitations Of Clement Moore's Immortal Ballad About Santa Claus; Edited, with an introduction and notes, by Martin Gardner. Summit Books. ISBN0-671-70839-2.
Nissenbaum, Stephen (1997). The Battle for Christmas: A Social and Cultural History of Christmas that Shows How It Was Transformed from an Unruly Carnival Season into the Quintessential American Family Holiday. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN0-679-41223-9.
External links
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