Q 01/05

Under what title was the poem first published, anonymously, in 1823?

A) Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas

B) A Christmas Eve Vision

C) The Night Before Christmas

D) Santa Claus and His Reindeer

Answer · why

A) Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas

The 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' name comes from its famous first line; the poem itself is properly 'A Visit from St. Nicholas.'

Q 02/05

How does the poem describe the sleigh when it first appears?

A) Golden, with eight great coursers

B) Miniature, with eight tiny coursers

C) Wooden, with eight fat coursers

D) Silver, with eight swift coursers

Answer · why

B) Miniature, with eight tiny coursers

A friend of Moore's sent it to the upstate New York paper; the Sentinel published from 1823 to 1832 and its former office on River Street still stands...

Q 03/05

Who is traditionally credited as the poem's author, having claimed it in print in 1837?

A) Washington Irving

B) William Cullen Bryant

C) Clement Clarke Moore

D) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Answer · why

C) Clement Clarke Moore

Moore, a biblical scholar, was reluctant to be linked to such unscholarly verse and only included it in his 1844 collected poems at his family's insis...

Q 04/05

Which Revolutionary War veteran and poet from Poughkeepsie has been proposed as the poem's true author?

A) Fitz-Greene Halleck

B) Joel Barlow

C) Philip Freneau

D) Henry Livingston Jr.

Answer · why

D) Henry Livingston Jr.

Livingston's family long claimed it, and a Vassar professor argued for him in 2000 — though no printing with Livingston's name has ever been found.

Q 05/05

For whom did Moore say he originally wrote the poem?

A) His own kids

B) A New York literary society

C) The Troy newspaper's editor

D) His seminary students

Answer · why

A) His own kids

In an 1844 letter he admitted he wrote it 'not for publication, but to amuse my children,' while still claiming it as his 'literary property.'