Thursday, October 15, 2026

Dundor and Blixem! Early reprinting of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" in the Missouri REPUBLICAN

Ho ho ho! 🎅🎅🎅 After renewing my subscription to newspapers.com I was immediately rewarded when my search for the phrase "settled our brains" in 19th century papers before 1860 yielded a very early appearance of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" in the Missouri Republican for February 2, 1824. 🎁 

Reprinted "From the Troy Sentinel" (December 23, 1823) under the major heading "Selected Poetry," this previously unrecorded western version includes the original preface by Sentinel editor Orville Holley and generally follows the Sentinel text, more closely than the earlier reprinting in the Charleston Mercury (January 16, 1824) that introduced variant forms such as a singular "hope" (instead of "hopes") in the fourth line and "nested" (instead of "nestled") in the fifth. One change unique to the Missouri reprinting has the children's stockings "hanging" instead of "hung" by the chimney with care. Another noteworthy departure from the Sentinel base-text in the Missouri version occurs in the roll of reindeer names. Instead of "Dunder and Blixem" the Republican gives "Dundor and Blixem." Probably a typesetting error, unless they liked the ring of "Dundor" better than "Dunder" in old St. Louis. 

A Merry Christmas. 1909 postcard via NYPL Digital Collections

Along with two, even earlier reprintings from the Troy Sentinel in Philadelphia and Charleston, the St. Louis version transcribed below is not listed in the glorious compendium by Nancy H. Marshall, The Night Before Christmas: A Descriptive Bibliography of Clement Clarke Moore's Immortal Poem (New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2002). 

Let's don't forget to pencil in all three items, preferably somewhere near the start of Marshall's indispensable BIBLIOGRAPHIC ENTRIES on page 3:

  • Poulson's American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia, PA) December 30, 1823;
  • Charleston Mercury (Charleston, SC) January 16, 1824; and now
  • Missouri Republican (St. Louis, MO) February 2, 1824

In 1824 the Missouri Republican was still a weekly newspaper, published in St. Louis by Edward Charless and edited by Josiah Spalding (1793-1852), a Yale grad and lawyer in St. Louis.  

Missouri Republican - April 9, 1823

Newly made a stepfather through his marriage to the widow Mrs. Agnes P. Gay, a local schoolteacher with two children, in April of the previous year, Spalding now had the best of reasons to like and promote the delightful rhymes about Santa Claus, as well as the family oriented preface by Orville L. Holley that accompanied the first printing of "A Visit from St. Nicholas." 

Who wrote it was still a mystery. The Christmas poet's identity would not formally be revealed to the public at large until 1837, when four poems by a highly respected professor of Hebrew named Clement C. Moore including "A Visit From St. Nicholas" appeared under Moore's name in the New-York Book of Poetry, edited by Charles Fenno Hoffman (New York: George Dearborn, 1837). A few years later, responding to a false claim of authorship (quickly retracted) in the Washington, D.C. National Intelligencer, Professor Moore himself explained in a letter to the editor of the New York American (there published on March 1, 1844) that he had composed the verses "not for publication but to amuse my children" 

As indicated on Newspapers.com, files of the Missouri Republican are made available courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri. 

A Visit from St. Nicholas A Visit from St. Nicholas Feb 2, 1824 The Missouri Republican (St. Louis, Missouri) Newspapers.com

ACCOUNT OF A VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house,
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse; 
The stockings were hanging 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 danc'd at their heads,
And Mama 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 sprung 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 timy 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 call'd them by name
"Now Dasher now! Dancer, now Prancer and Vixen
"On Comet on! Cupid, on! Dundor and Blixem;
"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 dress'd all in fur, from his head to his foot
And his cloaths were all tarnish'd with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys was flung on his back,
And he look'd 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 inspite 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 fill'd all the stockings, then turn'd with a jirk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprang [sprung?] to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down [dawn?] of a thistle
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight--
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night

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