"A Visit from St. Nicholas"

“A Visit from St. Nicholas” is a poem that was first published in 1823 and is often credited with establishing much of the contemporary concept of Santa Claus. The poem is sometimes referred to as “The Night Before Christmas,” after its first line. It was originally published anonymously and later attributed to American religious professor and poet Clement Clarke Moore. However, that claim soon came under dispute. Another claim was made that the poem was authored in the eighteenth century by former Revolutionary War officer Major Henry Beekman Livingston, Jr.

Despite two centuries of scholarly research and even some “trials” to review the evidence, the matter of the poem’s authorship continues to be a subject of debate and discussion. However, this uncertainty has not diminished the poem’s impact on the modern image of Santa Claus.

Background

“A Visit from St. Nicholas” was first published on December 23, 1823, in the Troy Sentinel, a semi-weekly paper from upstate New York. The author was listed as “Anonymous.” The paper continued to reprint the poem for a number of years, each time listing its author as anonymous.

Eventually, people began to credit Moore with writing the poem. Moore was a wealthy and well-known bishop in the Episcopal Church and a scholar of the Hebrew language. He taught at the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church and wrote about language. Moore’s most notable scholarly work was the first comprehensive American Hebrew dictionary, published in 1809. He also wrote some poetry, including another poem about St. Nicholas entitled “Old Santeclaus.”

A number of sources throughout history claimed that Moore wrote the poem in 1822 while traveling home to see his family for Christmas. It was said to have been originally intended for the enjoyment of his six children, for whom he recited it on Christmas Eve in 1822. Someone—either a housekeeper or a family friend, depending on the source—reportedly copied the poem and submitted it to the newspaper without Moore’s knowledge.

In 1837, the poem first appeared under Moore’s name when a friend, Charles Fenno Hoffman, attributed it to him in The New York Book of Poetry. Seven years later in 1844, Moore included it an anthology of his own poetry. This was the first time he publically claimed authorship, and he reportedly did so at the insistence of his children.

The children of Livingston played a key role in their father’s claim to the poem as well. Livingston died five years after the poem was first published and never claimed authorship during his lifetime. After his death, his children recounted how he recited the poem to them as early as 1807, more than fifteen years before it appeared in print in the Troy Sentinel. The Livingston family also claimed to have had a handwritten, edited, and dated copy of the poem that proved it was written before it was published in the Sentinel. However, this key piece of evidence was destroyed in a house fire.

Scholars remain divided on who actually wrote the poem, though it is traditionally credited to Moore. However, some sources list Livingston as the sole author, while others include mention of the controversy and give no direct attribution to either person. Other sources credit Moore but indicate it was inspired by or adapted from an earlier work by Livingston.

Overview

“A Visit from St. Nicholas” is written in fourteen stanzas of four lines each. It is written in the anapestic tetrameter scheme, meaning the lines of the poem each contain four metrical sections known as “feet,” and each “foot” includes two unstressed syllables and one stressed syllable. The scheme is often used in poems that move forward at a lively pace.

Each of the poem’s stanzas addresses a specific portion of St. Nicholas’s arrival, from the quiet time before the family goes to bed, to the father waking up to discover “St. Nick” has arrived. It describes St. Nicholas’s physical appearance and documents his arrival in a sleigh drawn by reindeer. The poem is also the original source for the names usually given to eight of Santa’s reindeer.

The poem’s description established a new image for St. Nicholas. In many earlier depictions, he was very tall and thin, sometimes bearded and sometimes not. He also wore a variety of different outfits that were most often green or brown in color, and was often depicted as riding a white horse. “A Visit from St. Nicholas” is largely credited with transforming the character into the chubby, jolly persona that is universally recognized as Santa Claus today. This image would be reinforced when later artists used the poem’s description as the basis for illustrating the character. The poem also solidified the image of Santa arriving with a bag full of toys as well as leaving by way of the chimney.

Much of the original concept of St. Nicholas is drawn from Dutch legends which were in turn based on a third century Greek bishop. The legend of a man who brought gifts to children was inspired by a story told about the original St. Nicholas providing dowry funds for three poor girls so they could marry. The Dutch influence is apparent in the names given to the reindeer, most notably “Donner and Blitzen,” whose original names were Dunder and Blixen, Dutch for “thunder” and “lightning.”

A number of books and articles have been written trying to unravel the mystery of which man—if either—wrote the poem. Both Moore and Livingston would have had the opportunity to hear the Dutch stories because they spent time in New York. New York was originally known as New Netherlands and was home to many Dutch immigrants who brought these legends to American shores. The arguments in favor of Moore generally focus on the fact that he eventually claimed authorship; Livingston never did even though he was alive when the poem was first published. Supporters of Livingston as the author often point to the fact that he wrote other poems in the anapestic scheme, while this was radically different from most of Moore’s other writings. Regardless of its origin, scholars do agree that the poem played a vital role in establishing the concept of Santa Claus as he is known in modern times.

Bibliography

“Clement Clarke Moore.” Poets.org, www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/clement-clarke-moore. Accessed 15 Feb. 2019.

“Clement Moore, the Reluctant Author of ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas.’” New England Historical Society, 2018, www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/clement-moore-reluctant-author-visit-st-nicholas/. Accessed 15 Feb. 2019.

Conradt, Stacy. “Christmas Poem.” Mental Floss, 8 Dec. 2016, mentalfloss.com/article/26719/mystery-behind-worlds-most-famous-christmas-poem. Accessed 15 Feb. 2019.

“Exhibit: Revisiting ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas.’” New York State Library, December 2015, www.nysl.nysed.gov/collections/stnick/. Accessed 15 Feb. 2019.

Jackson, MacDonald P. Who Wrote “The Night Before Christmas?”: Analyzing the Clement Clark Moore vs. Henry Livingston Question. McFarland & Company, 2016.

“Major Henry Livingston, Jr.” Poetry Foundation, 2019, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/henry-livingston. Accessed 15 Feb. 2019.

“A Visit from St. Nicholas.” Library of Congress, December 2009, www.loc.gov/wiseguide/dec09/stnick.html. Accessed 15 Feb. 2019.

“A Visit from St. Nicholas.” Redwood Library and Atheneaum, 20 Dec. 2016, www.redwoodlibrary.org/blog/lwhite/2016/12/20/visit-st-nicholas. Accessed 15 Feb. 2019.