A Visit from St. Nicholas to Usenet groups, the by-you, and beyond
December 24, 2013 7:57 AM   Subscribe

Nearly 200 years after "A Visit from St. Nicholas" was written, the authorship is still in dispute. In the years since, there have been quite a few parodies and variants of the poem written, recorded and performed, including at least two different versions of a Cajun Night Before Christmas (a recording of the version by Te-Jules, and Trosclair's version[Google books preview], read by Larry Ray, recorded from WLOX). Snopes tracked down the history of The Soldier's Night Before Christmas, Fifties Web collected 21 tame versions (with auto-playing music), and Dirty Xmas has a number of "adult" versions. Yuks 'R' Us has a large collection, including some dated computer-related stories. Speaking of dated, you can view a vintage '98 "enhanced" version of the original poem plus more variations from Purple Lion (a member of the Merry Christmas Webring from 1998). But for the ultimate collection of variants and parodies, you might recall this thread from 2002. The link is dead, but Archive.org caught the site around that time, with 581 versions. That was over a decade ago, and now Alechemist Matt is up to 849 versions, parodies and variants of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.
posted by filthy light thief (5 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
the authorship is still in dispute

A few weeks ago I had the rare pleasure of seeing Clement C. Moore recite the poem live and he was pretty adamant about writing it. (Okay, it was at the taping of the Dead Author Podcast.) The episode has now been posted so I thought I'd add it to the list.
posted by Room 641-A at 9:10 AM on December 24, 2013 [2 favorites]


I wrote a parody of it myself in fifth grade, or thereabouts, which was actually printed in our school newspaper. It started off Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the pad, not a creature was stirring (except for Dad). I also included at least one reference to Jack Nicklaus.
posted by Curious Artificer at 9:10 AM on December 24, 2013


It is the night before Christmas,
And I'll sit home alone
With my power shut down
So I can't hear that damned poem.
posted by mule98J at 9:38 AM on December 24, 2013 [2 favorites]


"Parody" poems that don't scan make me itchy; I can hardly make it through the first two lines of most of these.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:44 AM on December 24, 2013 [2 favorites]


Well ... if you are collecting versions ... I have one for all the woodblock printmakers in the house! (.mp3)
posted by woodblock100 at 2:17 PM on December 24, 2013 [1 favorite]


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