“THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS” Definition & Meaning

“The Night Before Christmas”

(1823) A poem from the early nineteenth century by the American author Clement C. Moore; it concerns the appearance of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. The original title of the poem is “A Visit from St. Nicholas .” Some lines from it are:
`Twas 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.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; …
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

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Notes

Moore's poem did much to establish certain aspects of the myth of Santa Claus: that he is a fat man dressed in a fur-trimmed suit, carries presents in a sack, enters houses through the chimney, and travels through the air in a sleigh pulled by reindeer.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Accompanying the image was a rhyming post styled after ’Twas the Night Before Christmas, urging Tennesseans to call Lee’s office in protest: “‘Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the state, Tennesseans were begging Gov. Lee to stop with the hate.”

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MI5 has released a special version of the festive poem The night before Christmas, read by actor Gary Oldman.

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His version nods to the location of MI5 headquarters in central London: "'Twas the night before Christmas when all through Thames House, not a creature was stirring, just the click of a mouse."

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In the voice over, Oldman reprises the role of his Slow Horses character Jackson Lamb - a spy in charge of a group of failed MI5 agents - beginning with the poem's famous words "'Twas the night before Christmas".

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Right now we’re in Christmas zone, so we’ll probably start revisiting the Christmas classics: There’s this animated movie from the ’70s that Rankin/Bass did called “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” that’s about a broken clock, essentially.

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