‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

A Visit from St. Nicholas

Author: Clement Clarke Moore, 1779-1863 or Henry Livingston, Jr., 1748-1828

Genre: Classic Poem, 19th Century

Reading Time (for story text): approx. 4 minutes

Audio Recording:

This audio is part of the Christmas Short Works Collection 2007 on Librivox.

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Background:

Clement Clarke Moore was born in New York City as the only child of Benjamin Moore and Charity Clarke. Moore’s father, who tutored his son at home until college, faithfully imparted his interests to his son in both academic life and ministry.1 As a graduate of King’s College, Moore’s father worked as its acting president during the first year of the American Revolution and was later appointed to the presidency of Columbia College (now Columbia University). Moore’s father was also active in the Episcopal Church throughout his life and served as the second bishop of the Diocese of New York.

When Moore entered Columbia College, he proved to be a capable student. He graduated in 1798 “at the head of his class, as his father had, thirty years earlier,” and by 1801, he had earned an M.A. degree.2 Moore was uniquely gifted in language, and he devoted most of the next several years to producing a massive two-volume Hebrew Lexicon, A Compendious Lexicon of the Hebrew Language (1809). He also taught language and literature courses at Columbia College.

In 1813, Moore married Catharine Elizabeth Taylor, with whom he would eventually have nine children. Despite the responsibilities of a growing family, Moore remained active in scholarship and ministry over the next several years. He was instrumental in helping to create the first Episcopal Seminary in America (the General Theological Seminary), and in 1821, he became one of its first professors. He also donated a large portion of land onto which the seminary would eventually relocate. Moore remained at the seminary until he retired in 1850.

Reportedly, in 1822, Moore wrote the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (now known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”) for his children (he had six at the time). This delightful poem has since been credited with popularizing the fantasy surrounding St. Nicholas and giving uniformity to American Christmas traditions.

Most likely, the poem developed out of ideas that were already circulating through the U.S. For example, in 1809, Washington Irving (a famous American writer) had published a satire on Dutch immigrants and their traditions called History of New York. Though Irving characterized St. Nicholas as an old man in dark robes who rode a flying horse, he depicted elderly Dutch men as jolly and fat with white beards and smoking pipes. He also characterized them as wearing wide leather belts and leather boots. By 1822, it appears that St. Nicholas had evolved into one of Irving’s jolly old Dutch men. Furthermore, as evidence that reindeer had already come to be associated with Saint Nicholas (or Santa Claus) in America, a poem published in 1821, “The Children’s Friend,” said the following:

Old Santeclaus with much delight

His reindeer drives this frosty night.

O’er chimney tops, and tracks of snow,

To bring his yearly gifts to you.3

There are various accounts about how the poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” came to appear anonymously in the Troy Sentinel on December 23, 1823. Reportedly, a relative copied the verses during her stay at the Moore home, from which a copy was made by Sarah Harriet Butler (a friend). Sarah’s father, Rev. David Butler, was apparently so impressed with the poem that he gave it to the editor of the Sentinel. Once the poem was printed, it was an immediate success and would appear in publications across the country in subsequent years.

Though “A Visit From St. Nicholas” was attributed to Moore in The New York Book of Poetry in 1837,4 Moore did not personally claim authorship until 1844, when he published his collection of Poems. Some say that because Moore was a serious scholar, he did not have much interest in iden-tifying himself as the writer of a fairy tale poem. However, others claim that Moore did not identify himself earlier, because he did not actually write the famous poem. The family of writer Henry Livingston, Jr. maintains that long before the poem was first published in the Sentinel (probably 1808), their ancestor was reading it to his children every Christmas Eve.5

The most convincing case in favor of Livingston’s authorship is made by Don Foster in his book Author Unknown, On the Trail of the Anonymous. Foster is an English professor who has served as a textual analyst in several high profile criminal cases; his specialty is author identity. After carefully reviewing Livingston’s work, Foster noted that a distinct aspect of his style was the way he used the word “all” as an adverb, and this can be seen throughout the Christmas poem: “all through the house,” “all snug in their beds,” “all dressed in fur,” etc. Additionally, the poem is characteristically Dutch in its view of St. Nicholas. Whereas Moore was of English descent, Livingston was Dutch. Furthermore, Moore repeated an editor’s correction that changed two of the reindeer names from Dunder and Blixem, the Dutch words for “thunder” and “lightening,” to Donder and Blitzen.* Lastly, before Moore claimed authorship of the work in his publication of Poems, he apparently wrote to the Sentinel to see if anyone could remember its origin, but no one could.6

After researching the work of both Livingston and Moore, Foster also drew some interesting conclusions about their respective characters. Whereas he perceived Livingston (a father of 12) to be warm, tender-hearted, and playful, he inferred that Moore was cold, judgmental and self-righteous. Foster argues that “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” is “as different from Moore’s other children’s verse [which were more preachy than they were playful] as Christmas cookies from steamed spinach.”7

Regardless, there are still many scholars who hold passionately to the belief that Moore wrote the poem. Historian Stephen Nissenbaum highlights the following fact as evidence:

“In 1829 that same Troy newspaper [that had first printed the verses in 1823] reprinted the poem . . . but this time the newspaper’s editor added some tantalizing hints about the identity of the poem’s author: he was a New York City man ‘by birth and residence,’ and ‘a gentleman of more merit as a scholar and writer than many of more noisy pretensions.’”8

Nissenbaum concludes, “While keeping up the aura of genteel anonymity, these words [from the editor of the Troy Sentinel] pointed pretty clearly to Moore.”9 Henry Livingston, who had recently passed away, was neither a scholar nor a resident of New York City.

Though the editorial comment certainly does not confirm Moore’s authorship, it does imply that the editor of the Sentinel credited the poem to him six years after it was first printed. However, if Moore himself was not acknowledging authorship at this point, it is easy to imagine how rumors and speculation could fill the void. It is not so easy, on the other hand, to imagine how Moore’s name can now be separated from a poem that has been published in his name millions of times around the world.

But what if Livingston was in fact the true author? Well, who can blame Moore for wanting to claim a bit of the warm Christmas spirit that so permeated Livingston’s life and the lines of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”?

Sources:

1 Dictionary of Literary Biography. “Clement Clarke Moore.” Retrieved on October 18, 2008: http://www. bookrags.com/biography/clement-clarke-moore-dlb/. Much of the biography for Clement Clarke Moore is drawn from this source.

2 Patterson, Samuel White. The Poet of Christmas Eve: A Life of Clement Clarke Moore, 1779-1863. More-house-Gorham Co., 1956, p. 45.

3 Patterson, Samuel White, p. 12.

4 Hoffman, Charles Fenno. The New York Book of Poetry. G. Dearborn, 1837, pp. 217-219.

5 Van Deusen, Mary. “Major Henry Livingston, Jr., The Christmas Poem.” Retrieved October 18, 2008: http:// www.iment.com/maida/familytree/henry/index.htm.

6 Foster, Don. Author Unknown: On the Trail of the Anonymous. Henry Holt, 2000, pp. 259-266.

7 Foster, Don, p. 261.

8 Nissenbaum, Stephen. “There Arose Such a Clatter: Who Really Wrote ‘The Night before Christmas’? And Why Does It Matter?” Retrieved October 18, 2008: http://www.historycooperative. org/journals/cp/vol-01/no-02/moore/moore-2.shtml.

9 Nissenbaum, Stephen.

*The editor actually changed “Blixem” to “Blixen” for better rhyme. Moore, who was familiar with German (but not Dutch), changed it to “Blitzen.”

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Text of the Poem:

‘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 miniature 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 called them by name;

“Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer, and Vixen,

On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixem;

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 bowlful 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.”

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