Dec. 17, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

'Twas the life before 'Christmas' of Clement C. Moore

By Mike Haynes

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and Clement C. Moore

Gets credit for writing the poem we adore.

He told of St. Nicholas, but you might be surprised

That he spent his long life teaching all about Christ.

                Who knows how many lame parodies – like the verse above – have been written based on “A Visit From St. Nicholas”? From sugar-plums dancing in children’s heads to the jolly old elf exclaiming, “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”, the poem first published in a Troy, New York, newspaper in 1823 is engrained in American culture and has been adapted and abused hundreds of times. Usually, we laugh in spite of ourselves.

Clement C. Moore

                So we might picture the poet as a not-so-serious but clever writer – maybe a 19^th century reporter taking a break from the news or a theatrical humorist getting into the Christmas spirit.

                Clement Clarke Moore’s day job was weighty – and spiritual – than a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer would indicate, however. From 1821 to 1850, he was a professor of Greek and Hebrew literature at General Theological Seminary in New York, a school affiliated with the Episcopal Church. Before his fame as a Christmas Eve poet, he was known for publishing a “Hebrew and English Lexicon” in 1809.

                Born in New York City in 1779, Moore was the son of the Rev. Benjamin Moore, president of Columbia University (who gave the last rites to Alexander Hamilton in 1804 after Hamilton’s infamous duel). He attended Columbia and, according to Britannica, “had a lifelong interest in church matters.” In 1819, the younger Moore donated a large tract of land, an apple orchard, in Manhattan that he had inherited to the Episcopal Church with the condition that a seminary would be built there. It became General Theological Seminary, which still operates today.

In 1820, he helped New York’s Trinity Church establish a new parish church, St. Luke in the Fields.

"St. Nicholas" poster by Thomas Nast

                The title of an 1804 pamphlet that Moore published anonymously criticizing Thomas Jefferson – “Observations upon Certain Passages in Mr. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, which Appear to Have a Tendency to Subvert Religion, and Establish a False Philosophy” – indicate both his religious and political views. I don’t think he mentioned Dasher or Dancer as he condemned the incumbent president who later clipped out verses from a Bible that included Jesus’ miracles and other mentions of the supernatural.

   
             “A Visit From St. Nicholas” also was published anonymously, and Moore wasn’t identified as the author until 1837. Saying he wrote it for his children, he included it in his book, “Poems,” in 1844. But the family of Henry Livingston, who was related to Moore’s wife, claimed that Livingston had written it.

                Livington died in 1828, never having claimed the Christmas poem, but several scholars, including Donald Wayne Foster of Vassar College, have said it has more in common with other poetry by Livingston than with other writing by Moore.

In 2001, an article by Stephen Nissenbaum of the University of Massachusetts – “There Arose Such a Clatter: Who Really Wrote ‘The Night Before Christmas’? (And Why Does It Matter?)” said his research showed that Moore was the author.

                Moore died in 1863 at age 83. The authorship controversy continues, but the poem forever will be a beloved part of Christmas. Whoever wrote it, “A Visit From St. Nicholas” established the American vision of Santa Claus.

Assuming that it came from the pen of Clement C. Moore, it even validates the idea that St. Nick coming down the chimney can co-exist with “the reason for the season.” It would be hard to believe that a professor who helped start a seminary and taught in it for three decades intended for St. Nicholas to replace Jesus.