The Night Before Christmas

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Siefker, Phyllis (1997). Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men. McFarland & Company. p.4. ISBN 0-7864-0246-6. a b c d Burrows, Edwin G.& Wallace, Mike. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. pp. 462–63 ISBN 0-19-511634-8 A word, first, about an authorship controversy that still swirls, like cold winter winds, around this beloved poem. While Moore, a classics professor and Episcopalian divine at New York’s General Theological Seminary, took credit in 1837 for the anonymously published 1823 poem, a number of critics and historians have joined with the family of Henry Livingston Jr., in claiming that Livingston, a New Yorker who served as a major in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, actually wrote the poem and regularly recited it to his children. How many decades ago did I memorize this poem, "Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash...." Does any kid now hearing this know what a "sash" is, not to mention a chimney etc. "As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly...": now as we await the wet leaves--and yacht boating boots--of the Republicans at their national convention hall in Tampa, a full foot above sea level at least: has anyone ever seen DRY leaves flying before a hurricane?

The poem is read or recited in numerous Christmas films, including Prancer (1989), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), The Santa Clause (1994), Reindeer Games (2000), and Falling for Christmas (2016). [41] It also inspired the 2001 film 'Twas the Night and two television specials called 'Twas the Night Before Christmas made in 1974 and 1977 respectively. Scott Allen Nollen (1 January 2004). Louis Armstrong: The Life, Music, and Screen Career. McFarland. p.192. ISBN 978-0-7864-1857-2. As the story goes, Moore wrote it as a Christmas present for his two daughters. He apparently told the New York Historical Society that a "portly, rubicund Dutchman in the neighborhood" was his model for St. Nicholas. Much of the neighborhood was once the property of Maj. Thomas Clarke, Clement's maternal grandfather and a retired British veteran of the French and Indian War. Clarke named his house for a hospital in London that served war veterans. 'Chelsea' was later inherited by Thomas Clarke's daughter, Charity Clarke Moore, and ultimately by grandson Clement and his family. Clement Clarke Moore's wife, Catharine Elizabeth Taylor, was of English and Dutch descent being a direct descendant of the Van Cortlandt family, once the major landholders in the lower Hudson Valley of New York. Nissenbaum, in an essay called “There Arose Such a Clatter: Who Really Wrote ‘The Night Before Christmas’? (And Why Does It Matter?),” writes that Moore and his social circle “felt that they belonged to a patrician class whose authority was under siege,” and that their interest in St. Nicholas “was part of a larger, ultimately quite serious cultural enterprise: forging a pseudo-Dutch identity for New York, a placid ‘folk’ identity that could provide a cultural counterweight to the commercial bustle and democratic misrule of the early-nineteenth-century city.”

There is no evidence that Livingston ever claimed authorship, [27] nor has any record ever been found of any printing of the poem with Livingston's name attached to it. But, according to the original copy of the poem that was sent to The Sentinel, the names of Santa's last two reindeer were Dunder and Blixem, instead of Donder (later Donner) and Blitzen, as printed. The changes in spelling are attributed to a printing error and/or correcting Moore's spelling inaccuracies, as he did not speak Dutch. [28]

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. ISBN 0-679-41223-9. The poem 'Twas the night before Christmas' has redefined our image of Christmas and Santa Claus. Prior to the creation of the story of 'Twas the night before Christmas' St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children, had never been associated with a sleigh or reindeers!Burke, John (1838). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland Enjoying Territorial Possessions Or High Official Rank: But Uninvested with Heritable Honours. Colburn. p.241. Statement of Revenues and Disbursements | Account of the City of New York and Balance Sheet for December 31, 1901. 1902. p.25 . Retrieved January 18, 2019.

Clement Clarke Moore Park, located at 10th Avenue and 22nd Street in Chelsea, is named after Moore. Jessie Willcox Smith (right side, facing the camera) with artist Violet Oakley (left side, facing the camera), illustrator Elizabeth Shippen Green and horticulturist Henrietta Preface Cozens, a mutual friend of the three artists. Photograph from the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.First attributed to Moore in 1837, he didn’t publicly claim authorship of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” until 1844 when he included it in a book of poetry. Seth Kaller, an expert on authenticating historical documents, said the matter was in "Obama birth certificate territory." Twas the Night Before Christmas (2022) is a Hallmark Channel movie about a town's annual Christmas Eve courtroom production debating the true authorship of the poem. Once this command has been given, the poet offers one more descriptive flourish, and then the eight reindeer display their most famous magical ability: