Despite their names, all of Santa’s reindeer must be female. Male reindeer shed their antlers after mating season, which coincidentally, falls right before winter and Christmas in the Northern hemisphere. [1]
A poem, originally titled A Visit From St Nicholas, was first published anonymously on 23 December 1823, in a New York newspaper. For 14 years, the author of the poem would remain unknown.
Today it is more commonly known as The Night Before Christmas and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas from its first line, and in 1837, Charles Hoffman, editor of The New York Book of Poetry, named his friend Clement Clarke Moore, a New York scholar and author, as the writer. In 1844, Moore would finally acknowledge authorship when he included the poem in his collection entitled Poems. To protect his reputation, Moore had not wished to be connected with the verse and only included it in the anthology at the insistence of his children.
According to the New York Historical Society, Moore’s description of old St. Nick “permanently connected St. Nicholas to Christmas and led to our idea of Santa Claus.” He is said to have based his vision of Santa Claus on a local Dutch handyman where he lived in New York. Legend has it that the handyman drove the sleigh that took Moore home. Moore is largely credited with creating the modern-day image of both Santa Claus, the domesticity associated with being home on Christmas Eve, and had a massive effect on the history of Christmas gift-giving. (It also established the names of Santa’s eight reindeer — all except for Rudolph.)
Four hand-written copies of the poem are known to exist and three are in museums, including the New York Historical Society library. The poem is read or recited in numerous Christmas films and inspired a movie in 2001 and two television specials in 1974 and 1977.
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