BY TRAV S. D. | An extremely important Chelsea milestone approaches in just a few weeks. December 23 will mark the 200th anniversary of the first publication of the beloved poem A Visit from St. Nicholas—better known as ’Twas the Night Before Christmas, by Chelsea founder Clement Clarke Moore. (For how Moore can be described as the founder of Chelsea, see our 2020 article by clicking here.)

This bicentennial occasion is being celebrated far and wide in a variety of ways. This year’s White House holiday decorations include several homages to Moore and the poem, with help from the Library of Congress. Mayor Adams has declared Dec. 23 ’Twas the Night Before Christmas Day in NYC. On Dec. 4, at the West 400 Block Association’s annual tree lighting ceremony in Clement Clarke Moore Park (W. 22nd St. at 10th Ave.), news correspondent, author, and area resident Martha Teichner read aloud ’Twas the Night. On Dec. 17, Chelsea Community Church’s 49th Annual Candlelight Carol Service sees NYC cabaret royalty KT Sullivan reading Clarke Moore’s classic (click here for details on this in-person and online event).

And author/illustrator Pamela McColl has published a book on the poem’s history, ’Twas the Night: The Art and History of the Classic Christmas Poem, accompanied by an ambitious public appearance and media schedule that will feature many events in New York.

McColl first made worldwide headlines a decade ago when she published her own edition of the poem—with a twist. A longtime anti-smoking advocate, she decided to put out a version that snipped out the bit about Santa’s pipe. News about this heresy went viral, with reports as far away as China and India. Stephen Colbert made jokes about it, it was discussed on The View, and mentioned by Brian Williams on the NBC Evening News. Then things went a little crazy. Tobacco companies approached her to see if she would consider releasing a vaping version. She got reams of hate mail and death threats. Someone wrote saying they wanted to put a Christmas wreath on her grave.

McColl soldiered on and now has become something of a champion of both the poet and the poem, to the extent that the censorship kerfuffle has fallen by the wayside. She was in town on the Feast of St. Nicholas for a joint event with Untapped Cities and the General Theological Seminary, which is located on the site of the Moore family’s apple orchard, land donated by the man himself. Like a Frank Capra character, she’s philosophical about the haters, saying, “Life is a parade! I don’t understand people who want to throw rocks!”

In contrast to the public reaction of a decade ago, McColl’s present project has been a smash success. Like St. Nick himself, she has crammed over 100 public appearances into a 60-day touring schedule. A reporter from The Economist and an ABC news crew came to her event in Troy, where the poem was first published. In Odessa, Delaware people waited an hour and a half to see her when her train was late.

“It’s the most re-published poem in English in the world,” she notes, “Over 2,500 editions have been printed, illustrated by everyone from Thomas Nast to J.C. Leydencker to Andy Warhol. The poem has been set to music and dramatized in plays and movies. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is partly based on it.”

According to McColl, Moore and his poem were instrumental in solidifying the Santa Claus myth in the first place. Figures like civic leader John Pintard and author Washington Irving were the pioneers who actively tried to steer the holiday away from existing traditions like mummery (where rowdy and drunken costumed strangers were liable to invade and plunder your home) to more of a domestic, quiet, familial time. Moore built upon their ideas and codified them somewhat in the poem, contributing new ideas that have become canonical, such as the names and number of the reindeer. He also eliminated a now-forgotten part of the Santa Claus myth: that he wielded a “birch and rod” with which to punish the children who found themselves on the “naughty” list.

The tour of the General Theological Seminary, where Moore taught for many years, was just one of McColl’s many planned local events. Among those open to the public will be a Times Square event with Santa Claus himself, followed by an appearance at Chelsea Community Church (both Dec. 17), and a lecture at The Grolier Club (Dec. 18). It all culminates with a special event at the General Theological Seminary on Dec. 19 in which Moore will be inducted into the New York Library Association’s Writers Hall of Fame, with remarks by McColl and Benjamin Bradley, (aka Mr. Christmas, star of Netflix’s Holiday Home Makeover).

As for what comes after that, like the airborne elf himself, she’s aimed straight for the stars. “I want NASA to bring a copy of the poem into space. That’s the only place it hasn’t been!”

For a full schedule of Pamela McColl’s ’Twas200 tour, click here.

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Note: This artile was made possible in part by a grant from the West Side Community Fund (WSCF). To learn about their members and msission, click here. For our editorial coverage of WSCF 2023 grantees, click here.

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