A Visit from St. Nicholas

A Visit from St. Nicholas

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' 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;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danc'd in their heads,

full poem

And Mama in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap —
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters, and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow,
Gave the luster of mid-day to objects below;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and call'd them by name:
"Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer and Vixen,
"On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Donder and Blitzen;
"To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!
"Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys — and St. Nicholas too:
And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound:
He was dress'd all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnish'd with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys was flung on his back,
And he look'd like a peddler just opening his pack:
His eyes — how they twinkled! His dimples: how merry,
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
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 laugh'd, like a bowl full of jelly:
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laugh'd when I saw him in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And fill'd all the stockings; then turn'd with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprung to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle:
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight —
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

—Clement Clarke Moore

"A Visit from St. Nicholas", also known as "The Night Before Christmas" and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously in 1823, and later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, who acknowledged authorship in 1837.

The poem, which has been called "arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American", is largely responsible for some of the conceptions of Santa Claus from the mid-nineteenth century to today. Prior to the poem, American ideas about St. Nicholas and other Christmastide visitors varied considerably. It became a popular poem which was set to music and was recorded by many artists.

Plot

On Christmas Eve night, while his wife and children sleep, a man awakens to noises outside his house. Looking out the window, he sees St. Nicholas in an air-borne sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. After landing his sleigh on the roof, the saint enters the house through the chimney, carrying a sack of toys with him. The man watches Nicholas filling the children's Christmas stockings hanging by the fire, and laughs to himself. They share a conspiratorial moment before the saint bounds up the chimney again. As he flies away, Saint Nicholas wishes everyone a "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night."

Literary history

Clement Clarke Moore, the author of A Visit from St. Nicholas

According to legend, A Visit was composed by Clement Clarke Moore on a snowy winter's day during a shopping trip on a sleigh. His inspiration for the character of Saint Nicholas was a local Dutch handyman as well as the historical Saint Nicholas. While Moore originated many of the features that are still associated with Santa Claus today, he borrowed other aspects such as the names of the reindeer. The poem was first published anonymously in the Troy, New York, Sentinel on December 23, 1823, having been sent there by a friend of Moore, and was reprinted frequently thereafter with no name attached. It was first attributed in print to Moore in 1837. Moore himself acknowledged authorship when he included it in his own book of poems in 1844. By then, the original publisher and at least seven others had already acknowledged his authorship. Moore had a reputation as an erudite professor and had not wished at first to be connected with the unscholarly verse. He included it in the anthology at the insistence of his children, for whom he had originally written the piece.

Moore's conception of St. Nicholas was borrowed from his friend Washington Irving's (see below), but Moore portrayed his "jolly old elf" as arriving on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. At the time Moore wrote the poem, Christmas Day was overtaking New Year's Day as the preferred genteel family holiday of the season, but some Protestants — who saw Christmas as the result of "Catholic ignorance and deception" — still had reservations. By having St. Nicholas arrive the night before, Moore "deftly shifted the focus away from Christmas Day with its still-problematic religious associations." As a result, "New Yorkers embraced Moore's child-centered version of Christmas as if they had been doing it all their lives."

In An American Anthology, 1787–1900, editor Edmund Clarence Stedman reprinted the Moore version of the poem, including the German spelling of "Donder and Blitzen" he adopted, rather than the earlier Dutch version from 1823, "Dunder and Blixem." Both phrases translate as "Thunder and Lightning" in English, though the German word for thunder is "Donner", and the words in modern Dutch would be "Donder en Bliksem."

Modern printings frequently incorporate alterations that reflect changing linguistic and cultural sensibilities: For example, breast in "The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow" is frequently bowdlerized to crest, the archaic ere in "But I heard him exclaim ere he drove out of sight" is frequently replaced with as. Note that this change implies that Santa Claus made his exclamation during the moment he disappeared from view while in the original the exclamation came before his disappearance. "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night" is frequently rendered with the modern North American locution "'Merry Christmas'" and with "goodnight" as a single word.

Original copies

'Twas the night before Christmas (credit: New-York Historical Society)

Four hand-written copies of the poem are known to exist, and three are in museums, including the New-York Historical Society library. The fourth copy, written out and signed by Clement Clarke Moore as a gift to a friend in 1860, was sold by one private collector to another in December 2006. According to Dallas, Texas-based Heritage Auctions, which brokered the private sale, it was purchased for $280,000 by an unnamed "chief executive officer of a media company" who resides in New York, New York.

Authorship controversy

Some contend that Henry Livingston, Jr., not Moore, was the author of the poem

Moore's connection with the poem has been questioned by Professor Donald Foster, who used textual content analysis and external evidence to argue that Moore could not have been the author. Foster believes that Major Henry Livingston, Jr., a New Yorker with Dutch and Scottish roots, should be considered the chief candidate for authorship, a view long espoused by the Livingston family. Livingston was distantly related to Moore's wife. Foster's claim, however, has been countered by document dealer and historian Seth Kaller, who once owned one of Moore's original manuscripts of the poem. Kaller has offered a point-by-point rebuttal of both Foster's linguistic analysis and external findings, buttressed by the work of autograph expert James Lowe and Dr. Joe Nickell, author of Pen, Ink and Evidence.

Evidence in favor of Moore

Moore is credited by his friend Charles Fenno Hoffman as author in the December 25, 1837, Pennsylvania Inquirer and Daily Courier. Further, the Rev. David Butler, who allegedly showed the poem to Sentinel editor Orville L. Holley, was a relative of Moore's. A letter to Moore from the publisher states "I understand from Mr. Holley that he received it from Mrs. Sackett, the wife of Mr. Daniel Sackett who was then a merchant in this city". Moore, who preferred to be known for his more scholarly works, allowed the poem to be included in his anthology in 1844, at the request of his children. By that time, the original publisher and at least seven others had already acknowledged his authorship. Though Livingston family lore gives credit to their forebear, not Moore, there is no proof that Livingston himself ever claimed authorship, nor has any record ever been found – despite over 40 years of searches – of any printing of the poem with Livingston’s name attached to it.

Evidence in favor of Livingston

Advocates for Livingston's authorship argue that Moore "tried at first to disavow" the poem, contending that although he claimed only two changes were introduced in the first printing it actually differs from his own on 23 points. They also posit that Moore falsely claimed to have translated a book. Document dealer and historian Seth Kaller has challenged both claims. Regarding the latter, Kaller, having examined the book in question, A Complete Treatise on Merinos and Other Sheep, as well as many letters signed by Moore, found that the "signature" was not penned by Moore, and thus provides no evidence that Moore made any plagiaristic claim. Kaller's findings were confirmed by autograph expert James Lowe, by Dr. Joe Nickell, the author of Pen, Ink & Evidence, and by others. According to Kaller, Moore's name was likely written on the book by a New-York Historical Society cataloger to indicate that it had been a gift from Moore to the Society.

The following points have been advanced in order to credit the poem to Major Henry Livingston, Jr.:

Livingston also wrote poetry primarily using an anapaestic metrical scheme, and it is claimed that some of the phraseology of A Visit is consistent with other poems by Livingston, and that Livingston's poetry is more optimistic than Moore's poetry published in his own name. But Stephen Nissenbaum argues in his Battle for Christmas, that the poem could have been a social satire of the Victorianization of Christmas. Furthermore, Kaller claims that Foster cherry-picked only the poems that fit his thesis and that many of Moore's unpublished works have a tenor, phraseology and meter similar to A Visit. Moore had even written a letter titled "From Saint Nicholas" that may have predated 1823.

Foster also contends that Moore hated tobacco and would therefore never have depicted St. Nicholas with a pipe. However, Kaller notes, the source of evidence for Moore's supposed disapproval of tobacco is The Wine Drinker, another poem by him. In actuality, that verse contradicts such a claim. Moore's The Wine Drinker criticizes self-righteous, hypocritical advocates of temperance who secretly indulge in the substances they publicly oppose, and supports the social use of tobacco (as well as wine, and even opium, which was more acceptable in his day than it is now) in moderation.

Foster also asserts that Livingston's mother was Dutch, which accounts for the references to the Dutch Sinteklaes tradition and the use of the Dutch names "Dunder and Blixem". Against this claim, it is suggested by Kaller that Moore — a friend of writer Washington Irving and member of the same literary society — may have acquired some of his knowledge of New York Dutch traditions from Irving. Irving had written A History of New York in 1809 under the name of "Dietrich Knickerbocker." It includes several references to legends of St. Nicholas, including the following that bears a close relationship to the poem:

And the sage Oloffe dreamed a dream, — and lo, the good St. Nicholas came riding over the tops of the trees, in that self-same wagon wherein he brings his yearly presents to children, and he descended hard by where the heroes of Communipaw had made their late repast. And he lit his pipe by the fire, and sat himself down and smoked; and as he smoked, the smoke from his pipe ascended into the air and spread like a cloud overhead. And Oloffe bethought him, and he hastened and climbed up to the top of one of the tallest trees, and saw that the smoke spread over a great extent of country; and as he considered it more attentively, he fancied that the great volume of smoke assumed a variety of marvelous forms, where in dim obscurity he saw shadowed out palaces and domes and lofty spires, all of which lasted but a moment, and then faded away, until the whole rolled off, and nothing but the green woods were left. And when St. Nicholas had smoked his pipe, he twisted it in his hatband, and laying his finger beside his nose, gave the astonished Van Kortlandt a very significant look; then, mounting his wagon, he returned over the tree-tops and disappeared.

— Washington Irving, A History of New York

Cover of a 1912 edition of the poem, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith

In popular culture

The very well known poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas", has inspired many parodies, adaptations and references in popular culture.

Comics

• In the Garfield comic strips published during the week of December 19–24, 1983, the text of the poem was drawn above scenes of Garfield acting out the part of the narrator.
• From December 13–25, 2010, Over the Hedge covered the poem in a story arc, in which Verne tries to read it to Hammy and R.J., but keeps getting interrupted by their silly comments.
• Issue 40 of the DC comic book, Young Justice (2001), is a full-length parody of the poem. Unusual for a comic book, it features no panels or word balloons, only full-page illustrations accompanied by rhyming text. In the story, Santa sacrifices his life to save the world from a vengeful alien villain (though it's implied he'll be reborn next Christmas) and the teen heroes are stuck with the task of delivering all his gifts.
• The December 11, 1968 installation of Peanuts features Sally Brown attempting to recite the poem, but inadvertently substituting the name of golfer Jack Nicklaus for "Saint Nicholas" ("The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hope that Jack Nicklaus soon would be there"), after which Charlie Brown is hesitant to correct her.

Films

• The 1905 short silent film, The Night Before Christmas, was the first production of the poem on film.
• The 1933 Silly Symphonies cartoon short, The Night Before Christmas,
• In the 1933 Pooch the Pup cartoon Merry Dog, Pooch the recites the poem. When he mentions the line "Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse," a rat finds it ludicrous, and therefore comes out to cause a little trouble.
• The 1941 Tom & Jerry cartoon short, The Night Before Christmas, opens with the poem's first lines, Jerry appearing from his hole on the word mouse.
• In the movie Die Hard, Theo alerts his friends to the SWAT team's arrival with a version of the opening line of this poem "T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except... the 4 assholes coming in the rear in standard 2x2 cover formation".
• In National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) reads the story to his extended family, but changes the narrative when he looks out the window and sees Cousin Eddie and Eddie's kidnapped hostage (Clark's boss) approaching the house. Instead of describing the "miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer", Clark describes the strange event taking place in his front yard.
• The title of Tim Burton's 1993 stop motion film, The Nightmare Before Christmas, parodies the poem's first line.
• The 1994 film The Santa Clause features Tim Allen's character reading the poem to his son, who was later woken up by reindeer on the roof, citing the phrase "arose such a clatter".

Literature

• 2014 The Cottage and Eagle Studios reproduced in its original format "The Night Before Christmas or a Visit of St. Nicholas" originally published in 1896 by the McLoughin Brothers of New York.
• The children's book series by Natasha Wing of more than 15 books based on "The Night Before Christmas" includes a modern day spoof, "The Night Before the Night Before Christmas"," and other topics such as going to school in "The Night Before Kindergarten."
• The children's book, The Cajun Night Before Christmas, offers a Cajun version of the classic tale, written in Cajun dialect and changing the scene to a Louisiana swamp and the saint's vehicle to a skiff pulled by alligators.
• In E.B. White's Stuart Little, the title character's parents change the second line to "not even a louse," so as not to offend their son, who is a mouse.
• A "Canonical List of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas Variations" contains nearly one thousand versions of the classic poem.
• In 1986 Lance Corporal James M. Schmidt penned "Merry Christmas, My friend. A Marine's version of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas'".
• James Thurber’s parody, “A Visit from Saint Nicholas IN THE ERNEST HEMINGWAY MANNER,” which originally appeared in the December 24, 1927, issue of The New Yorker.
• The 2013 poetry adaptation "The Night Before Christmas, 1914" written by Richard J Davis, based upon the events of the Christmas Truce during the first world war.

Music and spoken word

The Librarian of Congress, Dr. James Billington, reads The Night Before Christmas to the Little Scholars, December 2010

• In 1953, Perry Como recorded a reading of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas." Its original release was on the Around the Christmas Tree LPM-3133.
• The absolute highlight of the Louis Armstrong Christmas CD Christmas Through the Years is Louis reading the poem, 'A Visit from Saint Nicholas,'” better known as “'The Night before Christmas.'” Recorded on Feb 26, 1971 in the den of his Corona home (now The Louis Armstrong House Museum), it is his last commercial recording, and the only one without his own music.
• The nu metal band Korn released a limited edition promotional 12-inch single single in 1993, which featured two versions of their "A Visit from St. Nicholas" parody: "Christmas Song (Squeak by the FCC version)" and "Christmas Song (Blatant FCC Violation version)". The song was also planned to appear in Korn's debut album, but eventually was not included.
• The poem was set to music by Ken Darby and recorded by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians in 1942 in an arrangement by Harry Simeone.
• Dave Seville recorded the poem for the 1963 album Christmas with The Chipmunks, Vol. 2.
• Anthony Daniels voiced the character of C-3PO on Meco Monardo's 1980 record Christmas in the Stars reciting "A Christmas Sighting ('Twas the Night Before Christmas)" in which he describes "S. Claus" coming to the droids' toy factory to pick up the year's presents to distribute.
• Actor Jack Palance narrates the poem on Laurie Z's 2001 recording, Heart of the Holidays.
• Under the title of A Visit From St. Nick, the poem was set for Speaker & Orchestra by Robert Lichtenberger in 1987. It was commissioned for and premiered by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Polochick, and repeated by the BSO on a number of subsequent Christmas holiday concerts. The work has also been performed by the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, DC, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra conducted by the late Erich Kunzel, the Maryland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Elizabeth Schulze as well as other ensembles in the USA. Narrators have included then-mayor-of-Baltimore Kurt Schmoke, actor George Clooney and actress Pat Carroll.
• The poem was set to music by Aaron Dai in 2006 as The Night Before Christmas. It has been performed by The Chelsea Symphony and noteworthy narrators such as Richard Kind, Ana Gasteyer, and David Hyde Pierce.
• A Pokémon version of this poem is included on the soundtrack CD album of Pokémon-themed Christmas songs entitled, Pokémon Christmas Bash.
• In a 1939 recording included in the Nimbus Records collection Prima Voce: The Spirit of Christmas Past, actor Basil Rathbone reads the poem.
• The Bob Rivers comedy album Twisted Christmas features the track "A Visit from St. Nicholson", a narration of a Christmas visit from Jack Nicholson.
• In the Dave Van Ronk song "Yas Yas Yas", the poem is parodied in the verse "'Twas the night before Christmas, all was quiet in the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse, when from the lawn there came a big crash. It was Father Christmas landing on his yas yas yas."
• A new rock/pop musical adaptation was released in 2011 by the artist “JJ’s Tunes & Tales” on CD Baby and iTunes. The single features the singing of Juliet Lyons, and a rock band that includes both electric guitars and mandolins. This musical adaptation has singing and music throughout, with no spoken or rap lyric sections.
• Since 1911 the Church of the Intercession in Manhattan has held a service that includes the reading of the poem followed by a procession to the tomb of Clement Clarke Moore at Trinity Cemetery the Sunday before Christmas.
• In Mono Virus, a song by the Eraserheads from their 1996 album Fruitcake, the singer recites a parodied version of the poem before going into the song.

Radio and television

• Episode 55 of Animaniacs featured a skit titled "The Day Before Christmas", in which Ralph the Guard is given the task of delivering Yakko, Wakko, and Dot's Christmas presents. The short is presented as a bedtime story told by Slappy Squirrel to her nephew Skippy, and is narrated in the poetic form as the original story. This cartoon was adapted into comic book form in a special comic book published by DC Comics in October 1994.
• Some holiday airings of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy had Charlie McCarthy trying to recite the poem from memory, resulting in such lines as "The stockings were hung by the chimney with care/In hopes that the laundryman soon would be there" (a few times the line went "In hopes that the room could stand some fresh air"), "He flies through the air with the greatest of ease/The jolly old elf in the red BVD's", and "Now, Dasher, Now, Dancer, and what do you know/Dasher and Dancer paid $220 to show!"
• The song with the poem as its basis as stated above, arranged by Harry Simeone and music by Ken Darby, was performed at holiday airings of Fibber McGee and Molly, usually introduced by Teeny, the neighbor girl, as their "Christmas Carol."
• At the beginning of Friends (TV series) episode 9, "The One with Christmas in Tulsa", Phoebe sings the last four lines of The Night Before Christmas and Joey claims she wrote it.
• In A Muppet Family Christmas, the Sesame Street Muppets perform a play based on the poem, with Ernie narrating as the father (the main character) and Bert as Mamma (he lost a coin toss). The monsters appear as the reindeer, with the Two-Headed Monster as Santa (and Grover as the mouse who is not stirring, literally). The narration omits the line "The children were nestled, all snug in their bed(s)/While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads", because the line was just extra information that wasn't central to the skit's production.
• A hip-hop animated version of the poem was made as an hour long animated special, The Night B4 Christmas.
• Bell Telephone Company sponsored a short film circa 1950 entitled The Spirit of Christmas, featuring the Les and Mabel Beaton marionettes. Within a few years, it became a holiday perennial in many TV markets, especially in the Philadelphia area. In subsequent years it was licensed out as a 16mm film and shown in schools during the Christmas season.
• In the 1961 Bell Telephone Hour television program A Trip to Christmas, Ken Darby's musical version of the poem is performed off-screen by hostess Jane Wyatt and a chorus, and enacted onscreen by the Bil Baird Marionettes.
• In the animated TV special by Rankin/Bass (1974), titled "Twas the Night Before Christmas", the characters and portions of the plot are loosely based on the poem.
• In the Barney and the Backyard Gang special, "Waiting for Santa", Barney reads the story to Michael and Amy, whom he has befriended, while Santa himself is in the living room of the house doing his usual work. He falls asleep just as he comes to "With a little old driver, so lively and quick/I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick." Santa whispers the last quotation to the camera after that. Santa is real, he shouts.
• The December 23rd, 2011 broadcast of the CBS Evening News ended with Scott Pelley saying "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"
• The "Merry Merry it Up" episode of Shake It Up ended with Flynn, in the hottube, saying "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good soak!"
• A storyline on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show featured a plot by Boris Badenov to replace Santa Claus for nefarious purposes. The cliffhanger pun titles for one segment of the storyline were "'The Fright Before Christmas', or 'A Visit From Saint Nicholouse'."
• The special "Robo Knight Before Christmas" episode of Power Rangers Megaforce ends with Robo Knight saying "Merry Christmas to all humans on Earth, and to all a good night!"

Other

• "The Night Before Doom", which appears in the Official DOOM F.A.Q., is a poem centered on the computer game Doom.
• For Christmas 1985, the Internet Engineering Task Force circulated an RFC document that was actually a poem about the early days of the Internet, titled "Twas the Night Before Start-up".
• A version that originated on USENET in 1988 has circulated on the internet message boards and chain-emails ever since. The entire poem is rephrased using more complicated and lesser known words. It is sometimes called "Technical Night Before Christmas" or subtitled "For readers in their 23rd year of schooling"
• Are Santa’s Reindeer Used for Propulsion or Navigation?, written by Massachusetts Institute of Technology student Phillip M. Cunio, deconstructs the poem to determine the answer to that question.

See also

• Santa Claus's reindeer

References

Notes

Further reading

• Foster, Donald (2000). Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-6357-9.
• Gardner, Martin (1991). The Annotated Night Before Christmas: A Collection Of Sequels, Parodies, And Imitations Of Clement Moore's Immortal Ballad About Santa Claus; Edited, with an introduction and notes, by Martin Gardner. Summit Books. ISBN 0-671-70839-2.
• 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.
• Niels Henry Sonne. "The Night Before Christmas"—Who Wrote It? S.l: s.n, 1972. Reprinted from The Historical magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, vol. 41, no. 4, pages 373-380.

External links

• "Attribution Scholar Mac Jackson Comes Down on the Side of Livingston's Authorship" by MacDonald P. Jackson
• "The Authorship of The Night Before Christmas" by Seth Kaller
• First published text from the 1823 Troy Sentinel and a picture of its 1830 edited broadside edition.
• Text attributed to Livingston, at University of Toronto's Representative Poetry Online.
• The Night Before Christmas Bibliography by Nancy H. Marshall
• Photos of illustrated texts as old as 1840, credited to Moore
• Photos of an 1860 manuscript autographed by Moore
• Free audiobook from LibriVox
• Article about a change in the poem at Urban Legends Reference Pages
• Moore version online at Bartleby
• eText of a 1912 edition of the poem, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, at Project Gutenberg
• TheNightBeforeChristmas.com with many of scans of favorite antique illustrated versions as old as 1825
• VisitFromStNicholas.com with hundreds of scans of illustrated texts as old as 1825
• Free Audiobook from The Internet Archive (Community Audio)
• A Visit from Saint Nicholas From the Collections at the Library of Congress