Aviva Trivia

1. It seems that no one really seems to know who wrote “Twas the Night Before Christmas”

2. For many years credit for the poem was given to Clement Clarke Moore. It was thought that he wrote the poem for his three daughters in 1822.

3. The poem was published anonymously about a year later¦ on December 23, 1823 by the Troy Sentinel (NY).

4. But Moore may not have written the poem afterall. Recently, it came to light that the poem may possibly have been written by Major Henry Livingston Jr. about a seventy-five years earlier.

5. George W. Bush is a descendent of Henry Livingston’s brother, Gilbert.

6. The original name for this poem was entitled, ” An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas.”

7. If Moore indeed did write the poem, it is thought that it was actually written on Christmas eve in 1822, after having purchased a turkey for the family’s Christmas dinner. And Santa may actually have been based on a Dutchman who drove the sleigh that delivered him to his home.

8. There are about 400 editions of the poem housed in Carnegie Mellon’s Hunt Library, started in the 1930s by Anne Lyon Haight and later donated to the library after her death. It is interesting to see how Santa’s fashions have changed over the year. He can be found in anything from britches to a hot pink suit.

9. Cartoonist Thomas Nast created the images for the poem in 1863.

10 There are only four known copies that have been autographed by Moore and one actually came to auction. It had an estimated value of $200,000, but it didn’t attract any buyers.