Twas the Night before Christmas: A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore

"'Twas the Night before Christmas: A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement Clarke Moore is a poem first published anonymously in 1823. On Christmas Eve, a father witnesses a magical visitor arrive by sleigh and reindeer, bounding down the chimney to deliver presents and fill stockings. This beloved work transformed American ideas about Santa Claus and Christmas gift-giving, though its authorship sparked controversy between Moore and Henry Livingston Jr. The poem has been called "arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American." (This is an automatically generated summary.)

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About this eBook

Author Moore, Clement Clarke, 1779-1863
Illustrator Smith, Jessie Willcox, 1863-1935
Title Twas the Night before Christmas: A Visit from St. Nicholas
Note Wikipedia page about this book: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Visit_from_St._Nicholas
Credits Janet Blenkinship, Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
Reading Level Reading ease score: 78.2 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read.
Language English
LoC Class PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres
LoC Class PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature
Subject Santa Claus -- Juvenile poetry
Subject Christmas -- Juvenile poetry
Subject Narrative poetry
Subject Children's poetry, American
Category Text
eBook-No. 17135
Release Date
Last Update Jan 10, 2026
Copyright Public domain in the USA.
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