A Visit from St. Nicholas

            We’ve been reading Clement C. Moore’s The Night Before Christmas this week.  There was a little background information in the front of the version we were reading and that led to a little “googling.”  (isbn 978-14027-5484 – ordered from Amazon.com)

There are some that dispute that Moore is actually the author…. We’ll leave that for another day.  Did you know that the original title is A Visit from S. Nicholas?  And it is 188 years old?   The story is that Moore wrote it while going out to pick up a forgotten turkey and he recited it at supper for his children.  It was later published in a newspaper without his name.  He claimed it later. 

             Now for the big question…. Does Santa Claus actually smoke a pipe?  Well according to Moore.  Santa stood right there in his parlor and took a puff or two.  He actually claimed that the smoke “encircled his head like a wreath.”  I’m curious if these lines are more likely to be left out these days.  Tom Browning has a beautiful picture of St Nick with a nice pipe with a little twirl of smoke. 

What do you think?  Should these lines be left out?  Or would that be censorship?  Hmmm…. Tricky little question.

You can find the poem and information about Moore on the following link.  It also has an original draft of the poem.  

http://www.clementcmoore.com/