SantaClaus.com has a collection of antique, illustrated versions of Clement Clarke Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas," more popularly known as "The Night Before Christmas" or "'Twas the Night Before Christmas". The following pages contain high resolution scans of some favrite antique illustrated versions of Twas The Night Before Christmas. Santa Claus loves the accurate description in the poem, plus the time and effort the illustrators took to chronicle our yearly flight on The Night Before Christmas. We hope you enjoy these antique versions as much as we do, since almost all are out of print, Santa wanted to make them available to you! Santa's thanks go out to the author of the poem and the illustrators of all these versions! Alibris may have copies of some of these books if you are interested in them.

For even more copies, not just the favorites, look at the complete collection of SantaClaus.com's Illustrated Night Before Christmas pages .

Santa Claus also has a list of the "Top Currently Available Twas The Night Before Christmas" books. These books are some of the best 'Twas the Night Before Christmas editions that are currently available. If you think we're missing one, let us know in the SantaClaus.com Christmas Forums.

March 13, 1862 late 1800s or early 1900s copy of Holographic Copy by Moore (53 reprint)	1864 A Visit from St. Nicholas, L. Prang & Co (59)	1866 Christmas Poems and Pictures - A Visit from St. Nicholas, Hurd & Houghton (???)	1869 The Night Before Christmas, or A Visit of St. Nicholas, McLoughlin Bros, Linen (66)
1883 The Night Before Christmas, Alternate cover Porter & Coates (97)	1886 A Visit from Santa Claus, Virginia Gerson, White Stokes & Allen (102)	1895 St. Nicholas, McLoughlin Bros (???-shape book)
1896 The Night Before Christmas, or A Visit of St. Nicholas, McLoughlin Bros	1896-ca The Night Before Christmas, or A Visit of St. Nicholas, McLoughlin Bros	1896-ca The Night Before Christmas, or A Visit of St. Nicholas, Linen, McLoughlin Bros (118)
1898 The Night Before Christmas, Raphael Tuck and Sons, Linen (128)	1898 A Visit from Santa Claus, McLoughlin Bros (similar to 133/140, but not)	1899 A Visit from Santa Claus, McLoughlin Bros (similar to 133/140,but not)
1900 ca The Night Before Christmas, McLoughlin Bros (137)	1901 A Visit from St. Nicholas, McLoughlin Bros (similar to 140)	1901 A Visit from Santa Claus, McLouhglin Bros (140)	1901 Twas The Night Before Christmas, Raphael Tuck & Sons (142)
1902 Denslow's Night Before Christmas

1900ca - Cupples 1911 - Sam Gabriel & Sons 1915-Alice-Hirschberg-Hayes-Litho 1915 - Sam Gabriel 1917-Margaret-Evans-Price-Stecher

 

Santa Claus has even more Antique Illustrated Twas the Night Before Christmas books scanned.

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Copies may be available at AbeBooks - Rare Books and Alibris if you are interested. Many of these have wonderful illustrations, so it is too bad they are out of print, because the illustrators did such wonderful jobs! However, the covers are available here so you know what to look for!

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Chris Riley's SantaClaus.com's Christmas Home Page

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Numbers in the parentheses [()] represent Nancy Marshall's numbers a wonderful reference, which is available below. Some editions do not appear in her book and they are marked with "(???)".
The Night Before Christmas: A Descriptive Bibliography of Clement Clarke Moore's Immortal Poem

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For more information about Moore and the authorship of A Visit from St. Nicholas, please see the wikipedia entry. Also, There Arose Such a Clatter is a nice site for more history!


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