Twas the Night Before Christmas

Twas the Night Before Christmas actually titled A Visit from St. Nicholas was published anonymously in 1823. It was later attributed to Clement C. Moore in 1837 after he claimed ownership of the poem. Moore was an upstanding professor and it is said didn’t want something as “unscholarly” as a poem about Santa Claus to be tied to his name.

What is more interesting is that there has been a long-standing argument that, in fact, Clement C. Moore didn’t actually write the poem, that Henry Livingston Jr. is the actual author of the poem. With arguments on either side dating back to the mid-1800s, it’s hard to know the truth. If you want to learn more about the controversy and the history of this poem, I learned a lot from this Wikipedia entry.

Regardless of the author, A Visit from St. Nicholas is one of the most well-known American poems ever published. And even created many of the traditions surrounding the holiday that we know and love today.

This poem has been illustrated and adapted by countless authors and illustrators. I could never include them all, but below are just a few of the examples that you can explore this holiday season!

Twas the Night Before Christmas Book List

• The Night Before Christmas illustrated by Corinne Malvern
• The Night Before Christmas illustrated by Jan Brett
• Frozen Olaf’s Night Before Christmas Book & CD by Disney
• The Night Before Christmas illustrated by Charles Santore
• The Night Before Christmas: A Pop-Up illustrated by Robert Sabuda
• A Pirate’s Night Before Christmas by Philip Yates, illustrated by Sebastia Serra
• The Night Before Christmas illustrated by Henry Fisher
• The Night Before Christmas illustrated by Tomie dePaola
• The Knights Before Christmas by Joan Holub, illustrated by Scott Magoon
• The Night Before Christmas illustrated by Rachel Isadora
• Can You See What I See? The Night Before Christmas: Picture Puzzles to Search and Solve by Walter Wick
• The Night Before the Night Before Christmas by Richard Scarry

And if you’re looking for more books about Santa, check out my picture book list from a few years ago!