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Twas The Night Before ChristmasA Visit From St. Nicholas by Moore, Clement Clarke, 1779-1863
Twas The Night Before ChristmasA Visit From St. Nicholas by Moore, Clement Clarke, 1779-1863
By Clement C. Moore
Boston
All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.
HC ISBN 0-395-06952-1
PA ISBN 0-395-64374-0
LBM 40 39 38 37 36
[Pg 003]INTRODUCTION
A mid the many celebrations last Christmas Eve, in various places by different persons, there was one, in
New York City, not like any other anywhere. A company of men, women, and children went together just
after the evening service in their church, and, standing around the tomb of the author of "A Visit from St.
Nicholas," recited together the words of the poem which we all know so well and love so dearly.
Dr. Clement C. Moore, who wrote the poem, never expected that he would be remembered by it. If he
expected to be famous at all as a writer, he thought it would be because of the Hebrew Dictionary that he
wrote.
He was born in a house near Chelsea Square, New York City, in 1781; and he lived there all his life. It was a
great big house, with fireplaces in it;—just the house to be living in on Christmas Eve.
Dr. Moore had children. He liked writing poetry for them even more than he liked writing a Hebrew
Dictionary. He wrote a whole book of poems for them.
One year he wrote this poem, which we usually call "'Twas the Night before Christmas," to give to his
children for a Christmas present. They read it just after they had [Pg 004]hung up their stockings before one of
the big fireplaces in their house. Afterward, they learned it, and sometimes recited it, just as other children
learn it and recite it now.
It was printed in a newspaper. Then a magazine printed it, and after a time it was printed in the school readers.
Later it was printed by itself, with pictures. Then it was translated into German, French, and many other
languages. It was even made into "Braille"; which is the raised printing that blind children read with their
fingers. But never has it been given to us in so attractive a form as in this book. It has happened that almost all
the children in the world know this poem. How few of them know any Hebrew!
Every Christmas Eve the young men studying to be ministers at the General Theological Seminary, New York
City, put a holly wreath around Dr. Moore's picture, which is on the wall of their dining-room. Why? Because
he gave the ground on which the General Theological Seminary stands? Because he wrote a Hebrew
Dictionary? No. They do it because he was the author of "A Visit from St. Nicholas."
Most of the children probably know the words of the poem. They are old. But the pictures that Miss Jessie
Willcox Smith has painted for this edition of it are new. All the children, probably, have seen other pictures
painted by Miss Smith, showing children at other seasons of the year. How much they will enjoy looking at
these pictures, showing children on that night that all children like best,—Christmas Eve!
E. McC.
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Twas The Night Before Christmas, by Clement C. Moore.
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T was the night before Christmas, when all through 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;
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To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
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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 laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.
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