The Night Before Christmas
1857
- santa in juvenile prison
- juvenile poetry
- poetry
- santa claus
- christmas
- christmas poetry
- american poetry
- narrative poetry
- children's poetry, american
- american narrative poetry
The story
A well-known poem about an important Christmas Eve visitor.
What it’s like
Brisk, galloping rhythm drives this short narrative poem, its rhyming couplets bouncing like sleigh bells down a snowy street. Its atmosphere is hushed and cozy: a warm hearth glowing in a cold winter night, a household tucked into bed while children dream of sugarplums, and the faint stir of something arriving outside. Read aloud on a winter evening, it fills a room with gentle anticipation and old-fashioned domestic warmth. The tone is whimsical, affectionate and lightly comic, with no tension, peril or harshness anywhere on the page, and its little bursts of playful imagery, from a soot-smudged visitor to a tiny team of reindeer, keep the mood bright. Pacing is quick and sing-song, so it suits a bedtime reading, a family gathering, or a comfort read in the days before Christmas. It is written for readers who want a sweet, rhythmic, nostalgic holiday piece that is easy to sink into and carries the glow of an old-fashioned December night.
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