Advent Fact

Clement Clark Moore’s 1823 children’s poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (better known under the titles Twas The Night Before Christmas and The Night Before Christmas) is largely responsible for the creation of the modern iconic image of Father Christmas (or Santa Claus) that we recognise today, not just in the US but across the entire world.

Moore’s poem not only was the first to explain the job of Father Christmas (entering family homes via the chimney on Christmas Eve, in order to deliver presents) but went on to describe in detail his physical appearance, the now traditional costume, his reindeers and their names, and the fact that he rides a magical sleigh that flies through the night air.

However, controversy rages to this day over the authorship of the poem (which was originally published anonymously in the New York Sentinal) with many scholars believing it to be the work of Major Henry Livingston Jr., a distant relation of Moore’s wife, rather than Moore himself.