FARGO — For more than 200 years, people have been enjoying the melodic rhyming and nostalgic memories associated with Clement C. Moore’s poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
For almost half of that time, Forum readers have enjoyed seeing the famous words on the front page of the Christmas Eve edition.
Originally titled “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” Moore quickly penned the words in 1822 for the six of his nine children who had been born by then simply to “amuse” them, he shared in an 1844 letter to the editor of a New York publication. His moving words may have been inspired by a lesser-known work published in 1821 as “The Children’s Friend” which featured a less family-friendly version. Moore was friends with the publisher of “The Children’s Friend,” and his version of a Christmas poem first appeared anonymously in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel in 1823.
Moore himself was not terribly impressed with the poem, referring to it as a “bit of doggerel” compared to the scholarly and religious work he typically produced, according to his biography at the Poetry Foundation.
Despite Moore’s tepid feelings, the poem gained popularity, especially after being published in 1848 as an illustrated children’s book, according to Santa Claus Worldwide.
So popular, in fact, that in 1927, The Forum’s front page featured a familiar bearded figure and the now-iconic words “Twas the night before Christmas …” The headline still used the poem’s original title.
The 1927 evening edition published on Saturday, Dec. 24 was the first Fargo Forum to publish Clement C. Moore’s poem.
For decades, the poem has been a mainstay of the front page (usually) alongside headlines about war, national crises, presidents, disasters and more as a small but staid tradition in a typically tumultuous world.
In 1954, The Forum published the poem with a bit of a related news story below it, noting that St. Peter’s church in Chelsea had recently unveiled a plaque dedicated to Moore and his “immortal verses,” according to the Dec. 24 Forum article. Moore had given the land upon which the church was built before his death in 1863.
In 1992, the poem appeared on the front page under the title “The Night Before Christmas” before being styled “Twas the Night Before Christmas” in 1997. Ten years later, Editor Matt Von Pinnon noted in a Dec. 23 column that “traditions are the threads that bind one generation to the next” and that “while it may seem odd for a newspaper to devote such prime space to an 1822 poem about a visit from St. Nick,” newspaper people are a family as well, and traditions like printing that beloved poem are a way to honor the publication’s past, too.
Moore may have “dashed it (the poem) off” before a Christmas party, “and if it failed to captivate the young guests at this gathering, it has charmed and comforted millions of youngsters during the years that have followed,” according to a Dec. 24, 1960, Forum article. “There is probably no verse — unless it is that of the carol — so well known to American youngsters, so thoroughly joyous, as this simple” poem that “speaks the thoughts of childhood. Moore’s serious works long since served their purpose, but his poem lives on, for its appeal is ageless and unchanging.”
The content of this article was made possible largely thanks to Newspapers.com, which now houses the entire archive of The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead.
