'And to all a good night!'.
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It's just a few hours away. Night will descend on this most special day, and children will go off to bed and lie eagerly awake. Shifting in their beds, listening for hooves and bells, they will wait and wonder... and at last drift off to sleep. To help send them to their slumber, and to nudge parents and grandparents into remembering past recitations of these dancing words, we present again Clement C. Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas.''
'Twas the night before Christmas,
when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring,
not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung
by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas
soon would be there.
The children were nestled
all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums
danced in their heads.
And mamma in her 'kerchief,
and I in my cap,
Had just settled down
for a long winter's nap.
When out on the lawn
there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed
to see what was the matter.
Away to the window
I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters
and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast
of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day
to objects below.
When, what to my wondering
eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh,
and eight tiny reindeer.
With a little old driver,
so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment
it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles
his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted,
and called them by name!
"Now Dasher! now, Dancer!
now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid!
on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch!
to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away!
Dash away all!''
As dry leaves that before
the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle,
mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top
the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys,
and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling,
I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing
of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head,
and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas
came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur,
from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished
with ashes and soot.
A bundle of toys
he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler,
just opening his pack.
His eyes -- how they twinkled!
his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses,
his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth
was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin
was as white as the snow.
The stump of a pipe
he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled
his head like a...
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