Both versions of The Night Before Christmas appeared under the heading, CHRISTMAS / Account of a visit from St. Nicholas or Sante Claus. Both usages of "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Christmas" predate the "earliest" known example from the Schenectady Whig of December 25, 1832, documented by Nancy H. Marshall in her indispensable bibliography of The Night Before Christmas (Oak Knoll Press, 2002).
The Boston Patriot was published by Davis C. Ballard and Edmund Wright. The Long-Island Star was published in Brooklyn, New York by Alden Spooner.
The 1829 and 1830 texts kind of follow the first printing in the Troy Sentinel, with numerous interesting changes. The Boston, MA and Brooklyn, NY reprintings both describe the speaker's children as snugly "nested" rather than "nestled" in their beds. Santa's eighth reindeer is named "Blixen," not Blixem or Blitzen. Two occurrences of the preterit form sprung in the Troy Sentinel printing on December 23, 1823 have been revised or corrected to "sprang." Contractions are mostly eliminated by spelling out words like danced, dressed, and laughed where the Sentinel had printed "danc'd"; "dress'd"; and "laugh'd."
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| Boston Patriot and Mercantile Advertiser December 25, 1829 |
One deviation in the Brooklyn reprinting, transcribed below, concerns the way Santa Claus goes back up the chimney after delivering his gifts. Losing the familiar "nod" that Santa usually gives prior to departing, the Long Island Star has him "flying around" before takeoff.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And flying around, up the chimney he rose.
Too much egg nog?
22 Dec 1830, Wed The Long-Island Star (Brooklyn, New York) Newspapers.com
CHRISTMAS.
Account of a visit from St. Nicholas or Sante Claus
’Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ 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 nested 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 our brains 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 rein-deer,
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! Dunder and Blixen;
“To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
“Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”
As dry leaves 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 tarnish’d with ashes and soot,
A bundle of toys was flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedlar 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 wreath
He had a broad face, and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly,
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread!
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jirk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And flying around, up the chimney he rose.
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle!
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night."
-- Long-Island Star, December 22, 1830.
Other early versions of The Night Before Christmas where "Merry Christmas" replaces "Happy Christmas" in Santa's parting benediction:
- Charleston Courier, December 25, 1829.
- Long-Island Farmer, and Queens County Advertiser, January 2, 1833.
- Gloucester, Massachusetts Telegraph, January 8, 1834 (also prints "flying around" instead of "giving a nod," as in the Long-Island Star).
- Trumansburg Advertiser (Trumansburg, New York) December 23, 1835.
- The Rural Repository, January 9, 1836.
- The New-Yorker, December 22, 1838 (also has "flying around").
- Weekly Raleigh Register (Raleigh, North Carolina) December 21, 1839.
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