The “-ber” months are already here and next thing you know, Christmas will just be around the corner. We Filipinos have been known for celebrating the longest Christmas season. As early as September, we can already start to feel the festivities around us.  Personally, I always look forward to this wonderful time of the year.

One of my favorite childhood Christmas classic is “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement C. Moore. This timeless poem never fails to bring out the “child” in me. As a young girl, I simply can’t remember how many times I have read and recited each line by heart.    

“T’was the night before Christmas,

when all through 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…”

These are the opening lines to this beautifully written poem. I first encountered this story when I watched its animated film version, Rankin and Bass’ T’was the Night Before Christmas, aired on TV when I was a child. I loved the film so much and I was even happier to have discovered that my grandmother had a book version of it, which she gave to me.

The poem was originally written and published anonymously in 1823.  Its original title was “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, which tells the story of a man who had a brief encounter with St. Nicholas (or better known as Santa Claus) the night before Christmas, while his wife and kids were all asleep. The man found Santa Claus by his chimney filling all the stockings with wonderful gifts.

According to legend, this poem was written by Clement C. Moore for his family on Christmas Eve of 1822. It was never his intention to publish this poem, until a family friend found out about this poem from his children and submitted it to a local newspaper in New York where it was first published. This book would go down in history as the “most-published, most-read, most-memorized, most-collected book in all of Christmas literature” (reference: www.nightbeforechristmas.biz)

Young children who believe in the idea of Santa Claus will truly appreciate this story about his sleigh, his 8 reindeer, how he climbs down into chimneys and fills each stocking with gifts. It also gives a detailed description of how he looks, exactly how we all have grown to imagine him.

“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 on his chin was as white as a snow…”

The rhyme in the verses is consistent until the end, making it very fun to read to our children. The book had been published in various illustrated versions but the actual contents of the poem have remained the same. Unfortunately, I don’t have my original copy anymore, the one given by my grandmother, and the one I have now is a more updated version, illustrated by Ted Rand. 

For parents who continue to be their children’s mysterious “Santa”, you will surely love this book. This can also be read to younger children who are still curious about the concept of Santa Claus. This book is also a good tool to bring out the Christmas spirit in all of us. But perhaps the reason why this poem appeals to both the young and the old is that it generally brings out the “child-like” feeling in all of us – that wonderful feeling of always having joy and happiness instilled in our hearts as there should always be a reason for us to celebrate love and giving, everyday of our lives.