File: The Night Before Christmas.lit (118156 bytes)
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Keywords: The Night Before Christmas, Clement Clarke Moore, Poetry, Etext
"Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house/ Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse..." What child has not heard this story of seeing Santa Claus for the first time? The inspiration for hundreds of picture books and a few animated features, here is the full text of the classic poem by Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863).
Clement Moore, was a somewhat dour biblical scholar at General Theological Seminary of New York City. He wrote many serious academic works. "An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas" was written as a Christmas present for his six children. The poem delighted everyone who read it but Moore refused to have it published. An anonymous family member sent it to a paper the next Christmas and the poem became a popular sensation. Moore did not take credit for the poem for fifteen years.
There is an interesting case that Moore did not write the poem. A likely author is a Dutchman named Livingston who wrote many fanciful poems for children, full of flying animals and sleds. He considered himself an expert on reindeer and the North.
In any case, "T'was the Night Before Christmas" was instrumental in changing St. Nicholas, a bishop who gave out as many punishments as he did gifts, into Santa Claus, who was jolly, friendly, generous and dressed pretty much like a Dutchman with his wide belt and black boots.
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