Good morning my friends. Did you know that a New York City native by the name of Clement Clarke Moore wrote the beloved poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” which later became known as, “‘Twas the night Before Christmas.” Moore read it for the first time to his own children on Christmas Eve in the year, 1822? A friend of his family who loved the poem so much that they sent it into a newspaper and it was first published in 1823 under the name “Anonymous.” It wasn’t until 1844 that Moore finally took credit for, “A Visit from St. Nicholas.,” when his collections of poems were published. He graduated from Columbia College in 1789 and was pretty smart man; he graduated in top of his class. Moore was a deeply religious man and he also published “A Compendious Lexicon of the Hebrew Language,” but I haven’t gotten around to reading that yet. Moore and his wife, Catherine, eventually had nine children. He got the idea of the shape of St. Nicholas by describing a rotund Dutchman who lived nearby. And in his poem, St Nicholas was described as a little fellow; his sleigh was miniature, and his reindeer were tiny. I guess Santa had to be little to be able to slide down the chimneys. Boy, I’ll be his dry-cleaning bill was something else. It was also Moore who gave the names to the reindeer when he called out to them,” Now Dasher, now Dancer, now Prancer, and Vixen. On Comet, on Cupid, on Donner and Blitzen. Even after 191 years, the poem and the names of the deer still lives in the hearts and minds of children of all ages, including me! Now, I guess you have been asking, “Where is Rudolph?” Well, hang on; I’m going to tell you right now. “Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer” didn’t come about until 1939. Robert L. May was working for Montgomery ward and came up with the idea for a coloring book as a promotional item for the retailer, to give away. Ward had been buying coloring books up until this time and the promotion had become rather costly, so they decided to have someone to design their own. Ergo, “Rudolph” was born. May first thought of naming the deer with the red nose, either “Rollo” or even “Reginald,” but thankfully, he named him, “Rudolph.” I was going to tell you about another reindeer that was hitched right behind “Rudolph,” but I was afraid Vickie would have a conniption. A conniption is something like a “hissy fit,” but maybe a little more severe. Oh, what the heck, I’ll tell you anyway, that deer’s name was “Randolph, the Brown Nosed Reindeer.” He was just as fast as “Rudolph,” but he just couldn’t stop as quick!” Please don’t tell your kids about “Randolph.” Anyway, May wrote the poem about “Rudolph” in the same meter as “’Twas the Night before Christmas” and it was an instant hit. May’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, adapted the story into a song and the “Singing Cowboy, Gene Autry” recorded it in 1949 and the record sold over 2.5 million copies the first year. Eventually the song sold a total of over 25 million records and remained the best-selling record of all times until the 1980s. My, how times have changed over the last 191 years. Santa Claus isn’t the little old elf any longer; he has grown quite a lot since then and I guess it’s because of eating all those cookies left out for him to devour on Christmas Eve. Santa now sports a pretty good sized belly, but thankfully, he is still a jolly dude. I hope you all can sleep better after learning all of this stuff. Have a good day and read my new children’s book, “The Perfect Christmas Eve” to your children, who knows, maybe it will someday become a classic, too. Just don’t tell them about Randolph! God Bless!!
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 10:07:30 +0000
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