…and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.
This is the point where we pause in our broadcast so I can tell you a little history of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” because, of course, you come here for interesting Fun Fact of the Day things, right? Right. Which for today is …. that is really not the title of the story.
It is actually the first line of an 1823 anonymous poem titled, A Visit from St. Nicholas.
In 1837, a biblical scholar Clement Clarke Moore took credit as the author, saying he wrote the poem to give to his children as a Christmas present. However, there is debate on where credit is due, some arguing the credit belongs to Henry Beekman Livingston, which is a whole other story.
The poem itself “has been called “arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American,” and is largely responsible for some of the conceptions of Santa Claus from the mid-nineteenth century to today,” and the idea of the American “history of Christmas gift-giving.”
Over the next almost 200 years the poem has taken on many different adaptions and has even been set to music.
One adaption was an animation which first appeared in 1974 on CBS and ran every year as a Christmas Special until 1994, in which the plot to the story is told with an emphasis on the point of view from Father Mouse, with a secondary plot of the humans.
Okay, enough of that nonsense. Let’s just have fun. Go grab some popcorn and your favorite beverage and let’s just Night Owl the night away while we wait for ol’ St. Nick.
Bonus feature: Frosty the Snowman
Question for the Night – Have you ever had stage fright or a fear of public speaking?
Happy Christmas to All and To All a Good Night (Owl)!