You've heard of the beloved "’Twas the Night Before Christmas" poem—maybe some reinterpretations and parodies of it too. But who actually wrote it, and what inspired these iconic holiday verses?

The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” better known by its opening line “‘Twas the Night before Christmas,” has a special place among Christmas traditions, right alongside hot chocolate ...

The “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” poem was first published anonymously on Dec. 23, 1823, in The Sentinel, a newspaper based in Troy, New York.An instant success, the poem was ...