'Twas the Night Before Christmas is a poem that many are familiar with. What most people aren't familiar with is the original author of the poem. The poem was sent in anonymously to the New York Troy's Sentinel in 1823. On December 23, 1823 the poem was published and now we have a classic that's been around for almost 200 years.
The poem that finally gave Santa's reindeer's names wasn't claimed until 13 years later. A Professor and Poet, Clement Clarke Moore, confessed he had written the poem and was embarrassed by it. He had written it for his children, and it was sent in by housekeeper. There are doubts that Moore had written the poem though as there were references to Dutch culture and it was written in a way that he's never written any of his other poems.
Henry Livingston Jr's family came forward claiming he had been reciting the poem for at least 15 years before it was published. Another thing that adds to the claim is that Livingston had a Dutch background. The Reindeer's Donner and Blitzen were originally Dunder and Blixem meaning thunder and lightning in Dutch. The family and even a neighbor girl claimed to have heard the poem as early as 1807. They even had evidence of revisions of the poem Livingston wrote, but it burned up when the family home burned down.
Even though Moore is more often credited for the poem. It is still a mystery on who had actually written it.
SOURCES:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/26719/mystery-behind-worlds-most-famous-christmas-poem
https://www.poetrynation.com/mystery-behind-twas-night-christmas/
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