Treat your family to a good Christmas Eve mystery

Santa’s original reindeers “Dunder” and “Blixem” may hold the key to solving a Christmas mystery that is almost 200 years old. Who wrote the classic yuletide poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas?”

 

On Dec. 23, 1823, the epic poem was first published authorless in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel, a semi-weekly newspaper in upstate New York near Albany. It was contributed by an unnamed reader. 

Today, we recognize this poem by its opening line: “Twas the Night Before Christmas….” 

Joyce Bassett of the (Albany) Times Union said recently: “This poem is largely responsible for the conception of Santa Claus from the mid-19th century to today.”

 Almost everyone believes Clement Clarke Moore of New York City wrote the legendary poem, but the true author just may have been Henry Livingston Jr., of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Both men were learned writers whose work include poetry. 

Bassett said a mock trial was held in 2013 at the Rensselaer County Courthouse in Troy. In the case of “Livingston v. Moore: Who Really Wrote ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’?” two teams of local lawyers argued the case on behalf of their respective “clients.” 

It was all for fun. Bud Malone, a retired state supreme court justice, told the crowd and a gaggle of news reporters who had gathered for the trial: “We have a hung jury.” 

Most historical accounts believe Moore, who lived in Manhattan, penned the poem on Christmas Eve of 1822. At the time, he was employed as a professor at the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church.

 

Charles Clark Moore

Bassett said Moore composed “A Visit from St. Nicholas” in his head – all 56 lines – during a family sleigh ride. He wrote out the poem after arriving home and recited it for the amusement of his six children. 

“Tradition tells that Harriet Butler, who was a holiday visitor to the Moore home, took a copy of the poem home with her to Troy, where the next year it was submitted anonymously to the Sentinel for publication,” Bassett said. 

Moore originally referred to the poem as “a mere trifle” and didn’t want his name associated with the poem, “because as a stodgy man of academia, it was beneath his dignity; he preferred to be known for more scholarly works,” Bassett reported.

 

As published, lines 20 through 25, are critical to the literary mystery. 

And he whistled, and shouted, and call’d them by name:

“Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer, and Vixen,

“On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixem;

“To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

“Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!” 

“Dunder” and “Blixem” are Dutch words for “thunder” and “lightning,” so their use is appropriate, as names that might have been selected by St. Nicholas himself…a kindly old man who emerged from old Nordic folktales. 

Some critics said the Dutch reindeer names were unlikely to have been penned by Moore, because his family roots were pure English. 

Livingston, though, was nine-tenths Dutch by inheritance, according to documents cited by Poughkeepsie area librarians. Livingston’s ancestors believe that he wrote the poem as early as 1805.

 

Henry Livingston Jr.

The librarians’ research suggested: “‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’ is absolutely in the Dutch tradition of Henry Livingston…and just as absolutely not in that of C. C. Moore.” 

The leader of the pack of those doubting Moore’s authenticity is Dr. Don Foster, a retired professor of English literature at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie.

 

Dr. Foster described Moore as “something of a curmudgeon,” while Livingston was an “irrepressible levenslust,” full of joyful exuberance…just like St. Nick.