Twas the Night Before

Written by

Robert Richardson

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A Visit from St. Nicholas hits the shelves
NW-MIT-ST-NICHOLAS-1222
A page from A visit from Saint Nicholas. The poem subsequently became known as The Night Before Christmas and was attributed to Clement C. Moore. The authorship remains in dispute. THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
The Troy Sentinel served readers in eastern New York for less than a decade, but in 1823, its inaugural year, the newspaper published an anonymous poem that would stand the test of time. A Visit from St. Nicholas, also known by its first line, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, describes the arrival of Santa Claus at a family’s home. A father recounts how, after his wife and children fall asleep, he is disturbed by a noise outside and the sight of St. Nicholas, who alights on his roof in a flying reindeer-drawn sleigh and then comes down the chimney with a sack of toys. Written in rhyming couplets, much of the poem’s enduring appeal lies in its sentimental imagery of a simple and gentle – even magical – Christmas with children at the heart. New York writer and scholar Clement Clarke Moore later claimed authorship of its 56 lines, which introduced several North American Christmas conventions, distinct from European ones. The plump, rosy-cheeked and jolly Santa bearing toys contrasted with a Father Christmas associated with adult merrymaking, rather than children or gift-giving. Ian Morfitt

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