"A Visit From St. Nicholas"

It was on this day in 1823 that the famous poem "A Visit From St.
Nicholas" was first published. It begins, "Twas the night before
Christmas, when all through the house / Not a creature was stirring,
not even a mouse."

Fourteen years after its first publication, an editor attributed the
poem to a wealthy professor of classical literature named Clement
Clarke Moore. In the last few years, new evidence has come out that a
Revolutionary War major named Henry Livingston Jr. may have been the
actual author of "The Night Before Christmas." His family has letters
describing his recitation of the poem before it was originally
published, and literary scholars have found many similarities between
his work and "The Night Before Christmas." He was also three quarters
Dutch, and many of the details in the poem, including names of the
reindeer, have Dutch origins.