"A Visit from St. Nicholas" turns 200 this year! You may know it better by "T'was the Night Before Christmas."🌲🌲

Last time, we talked about assonance, when vowel sounds get repeated.

Today, we will talk more about the storytelling.

The poem's SPEAKER and the poem's AUTHOR may be two different people. An author can invent a speaker and write from that person's point of view. In the land of imagination, an author can even make an inanimate object the SPEAKER.

Let's do some detective work. So who is the speaker in "T'was the Night Before Christmas"? Does the speaker have a gender? Physical attributes? Quirks? Is the speaker from the past or the future?

🟩"Mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap"

🟩"I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter"

🟩"And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself"

In November, I did a practice teaching session to four Clauses. A Mrs. Claus in Ohio said she changes the speaker’s gender, so that SHE becomes the SPEAKER.

Yes! I love this.

The more I dive into the poem, the more I learn and enjoy. As a Mrs. Claus who can work alone without a Santa, I want to offer fun educational sessions about poetry. Write to me at mrsclausnyc@gmail.com if you’d like a fun lecture, online or in person. Follow my lessons on Instagram and Facebook.❤️❤️

A big shout-out to the Three Wise Guys of Christmas: Washington Irving, John Pintard, and Clement Clarke Moore. These New York City gentlemen shared a fondness for St. Nicholas, the patron saint of Dutch New Amsterdam.

In their imaginings, a Dutch Sinterklaas (St. Nick) flew over New York. Through writings and images, Sinterklaas kept getting rosier and Clausier.

The artistic Dutch revival "remembered" a Christmas that never actually existed, one that glorified Old Days before the British occupied Manhattan during the Revolutionary War.

Here's how each of these men contributed to the legend of Santa Claus:

✅Merchant John Pintard, founder of the New-York Historical Society, thought robust Christmas celebrations might release workers' pent-up energies. He petitioned for St. Nicholas to be the patron saint of New York City. He also observed Dec. 6 as the Feast of St. Nicholas.

✅Writer Washington Irving wrote A History of New York, a whimsical history of early New York that mentioned a flying figure in the sky. The book was published on St. Nicholas Day, December 6, 1809. Irving also was a co-founder of the St. Nicholas Society.

✅Scholar Clement Clarke Moore wrote "A Visit from St. Nicholas," also known as "T'was the Night Before Christmas." He wrote the poem to entertain his nine children at his Chelsea estate. The poem first appeared in the Troy Sentinel in 1823, making this year its 200th anniversary.

Sources: New-York Historical Society, Wikipedia, Sunnyside in Tarrytown, NY

Visit me at mrsclausnyc.com ❤❤❤❤

"A Visit from St. Nicholas" turns 200 this year! It's lasted so long partly because it feels so good to recite out loud. It has "sound pleasure."

Last week, you learned about alliteration, which is when repeated consonants fall near each other in a text. Think: Meatless Monday or Tom Turkey.

Assonance is similar to alliteration but it involves repeated vowel sounds, regardless of the consonants around it.

If your mouth forms the same shape when reciting certain vowels, you may have found assonance, also known as vowel rhyme.

Here are examples:

🟩"Creature was stirring" [Hear the ur?]

🟩"Nestled all snug in their beds" [Hear the eh?]

🟩 "Moon on the breast of the new ..." [Hear the ooo?]

🟩 "Sleigh and eight tiny rein ... " [Hear the aaa?]

Stay tuned for more fun facts about this famous poem.

The more I dive into the poem, the more I learn and enjoy. As a Mrs. Claus who can work alone without a Santa, I want to offer fun educational sessions about poetry. Write to me at mrsclausnyc@gmail.com if you’d like a fun lecture, online or in person. Follow my lessons on Instagram and Facebook.❤️❤️