- Remove All filter All (551)
- 24 (2) Apply 24 filter
- Look Who's Talking (2) Apply Look Who's Talking filter
- Maitland Library August 2016 (1) Apply Maitland Library August 2016 filter
- General (246) Apply General filter
- What's on (112) Apply What's on filter
- Online Services (21) Apply Online Services filter
- Documents (1) Apply Documents filter
- Home
- What's On
- Exhibitions
- Walls That Talk
- Walls That Talk Past Exhibitions
- Night Before Christmas
Night Before Christmas
The Night Before Christmas
The Night Before Christmas
by Clement C.Moore and Karen Erasmaus, Hachette Australia, 2012
Karen Erasmus is a well known Australian children's book illustrator, whose contemporary illustrations of this popular and historic Christmas tale are now displayed here in Maitland for the whole community to enjoy over the Christmas period.
There is a fascinating history about the origins of The Night before Christmas. According to legend, American writer Clement Clarke Moore wrote his famous poem, 'A Visit from St. Nicholas', also known as 'The Night Before Christmas', for his family on Christmas Eve 1822. He never intended that it be published, but a family friend learned of the poem sometime later from Moore's children. She copied it into her album and submitted it to the editor of the Troy (New York) Sentinel where it made its first appearance in print on December 23 1823. Soon, the poem began to be reprinted in other newspapers, almanacs and magazines, with the first appearance in a book in the 'New York Book of Poetry' in 1837.
It was not until 1844 however, that Moore himself acknowledged authorship in a volume of his poetry simply entitled Poems, published at the request of his children.
Almost two centuries later it is the most published, most read, most memorised and most collected book in all of Christmas literature.
- Your Library
- Using the library
- Library services
- Connect with us
- What's On
- Talks
- Look Who's Talking
- The Man in the Kayak - Scott Bevan
- Sydney Writers' Festival Live and Local
- Sydney Writers' Festival - Barrie Cassidy & Friends: Biden's America
- Sydney Writers' Festival - Are You There, Sydney? It's Me, Judy Blume
- Sydney Writers' Festival - But Not Forgotten
- Sydney Writers' Festival - The Larrikin Lie
- Sydney Writers' Festival - Barrie Cassidy & Friends: Opposition and Dissent
- Sydney Writers' Festival - Isabel Wilkerson: Caste - The Lies That Divide Us
- Sydney Writer's Festival - Sarah Krasnostein & Helen Garner
- Sydney Writers' Festival - Richard Flanagan and Laura Tingle
- Sydney Writers' Festival - Barrie Cassidy & Friends: The Canberra Bubble
- Sydney Writers' Festival - George Miller: Beyond Thunderdome
- Sydney Writers' Festival - Jan Fran and Judith Lucy
- Sydney Writers' Festival - Great Adaptations: Margaret and David Return
- Radicals: Remembering the Sixties
- With My Little Eye - Sandra Hogan
- Say Hello to Carly Findlay, Kurt Fearnley and Belinda Downes
- The Kindness Revolution - Hugh MacKay
- Writing Workshop with Sofie Laguna
- Infinite Splendours - Sofie Laguna
- Lucky's - Andrew Pippos
- Love Objects - Emily Maguire
- Author, Activist, Academic - Tony Birch
- Robert Dessaix - In Conversation with
- To hell in a handbasket or the best of all possible worlds
- Bringing the Sydney Writer's Festival to You
- Alex Dyson
- Alison Whittaker
- Ann Patchett and Kevin Wilson
- Bob Brown
- Cassandra Pybus
- David Mitchell
- Ellen Van Neerven
- Golriz Ghahraman
- Intan Paramaditha
- James Bradley
- Jess Hill
- Julia Gillard
- Kay Kerr
- Layla F. Saad
- Liam Pieper
- Lisa Taddeo
- Malcom Turnbull
- Miranda Tapsell
- Alice Oseman
- Anna Wiener
- Dani Shapiro
- Favel Parrett
- First on the Ground
- Griffith Review 68: Getting On
- Heather Rose
- Jeff Sparrow
- Josephine Rowe
- Kathy Lette Gets Candid
- Kawai Strong Washburn
- Mirandi Riwoe
- Nicole Dennis-Benn
- Panel Discussion
- Paul Kelly
- Queerly Beloved
- Ronnie Scott
- Sophie McNeill
- Vicki Laveau-Harvie
- Philippe Sands
- Rebecca Giggs
- Return of the Sweatshop Woman
- Richard Cooke
- Sophie Hardcastle
- Tanya Talaga
- Look Who's Talking Online
- Local History
- Wellbeing
- Local Authors
- Local Stories
- Podcasts
- Look Who's Talking
- Exhibitions
- For readers and writers
- For kids
- For teens
- NSW Seniors Festival
- Learning
- Talks
- Collections
- Discover