{"id":31481,"date":"2020-11-05T14:52:09","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T21:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?page_id=31481"},"modified":"2024-07-23T13:36:35","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T19:36:35","slug":"twas-the-night-before-christmas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/twas-the-night-before-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Twas the Night Before Christmas Read-a-Thon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Twas the night before <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> when all through the house&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For years we have discussed what it would be like to get together to just read <em>A Visit from St. Nicholas<\/em>. Well, why can&#8217;t we do it? What better year than this year to make it happen?<\/p>\n<p>In traditional MyMerryChristmas fashion we&#8217;ll just do this virtually&#8230;together! It&#8217;s simple, just use your phone or computer microphone and read it. You can do it alone or you can do it with a partner or family member. In fact, we think it would be cool to have a few child voices in the mix.<\/p>\n<p>Then you come to this page and upload your reading. From there, the sound engineer among us will work their magic and we&#8217;ll splice everyone together in one glorious production. Or two or three. The more the merrier!<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s get it done before <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/sneaking-christmas\/\">Thanksgiving<\/a>, November 26th.<\/p>\n<p>Then, as part of a very <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> episode of the <a href=\"https:\/\/merrypodcast.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Merry Little Podcast<\/strong><\/a> and maybe even, if you&#8217;re good enough, on <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> Eve on Kringle <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/a-glimpse-of-christmas-100-years-ago\/\">Radio<\/a> (!), we&#8217;ll share it with the world!<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the text to read:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8216;Twas the night before <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a>, when all through the house<br \/>\nNot a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;<br \/>\nThe stockings were hung by the chimney with care,<br \/>\nIn hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;<br \/>\nThe children were nestled all snug in their beds;<br \/>\nWhile visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;<br \/>\nAnd mamma in her &#8216;kerchief, and I in my cap,<br \/>\nHad just settled our brains for a long winter&#8217;s nap,<br \/>\nWhen out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,<br \/>\nI sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.<br \/>\nAway to the window I flew like a flash,<br \/>\nTore open the shutters and threw up the sash.<br \/>\nThe moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,<br \/>\nGave a lustre of midday to objects below,<br \/>\nWhen what to my wondering eyes did appear,<br \/>\nBut a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer,<br \/>\nWith a little old driver so lively and quick,<br \/>\nI knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.<br \/>\nMore rapid than eagles his coursers they came,<br \/>\nAnd he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:<br \/>\n&#8220;Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen!<br \/>\nOn, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen!<br \/>\nTo the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!<br \/>\nNow dash away! dash away! dash away all!&#8221;<br \/>\nAs leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,<br \/>\nWhen they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;<br \/>\nSo up to the housetop the coursers they flew<br \/>\nWith the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too\u2014<br \/>\nAnd then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof<br \/>\nThe prancing and pawing of each little hoof.<br \/>\nAs I drew in my head, and was turning around,<br \/>\nDown the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.<br \/>\nHe was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,<br \/>\nAnd his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;<br \/>\nA bundle of toys he had flung on his back,<br \/>\nAnd he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.<br \/>\nHis eyes\u2014how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!<br \/>\nHis cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!<br \/>\nHis droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,<br \/>\nAnd the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;<br \/>\nThe stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,<br \/>\nAnd the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;<br \/>\nHe had a broad face and a little round belly<br \/>\nThat shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.<br \/>\nHe was chubby and plump, a right jolly old <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/northpole-7\/\">elf<\/a>,<br \/>\nAnd I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;<br \/>\nA wink of his eye and a twist of his head<br \/>\nSoon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;<br \/>\nHe spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,<br \/>\nAnd filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,<br \/>\nAnd laying his finger aside of his nose,<br \/>\nAnd giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;<br \/>\nHe sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,<br \/>\nAnd away they all flew like the down of a thistle.<br \/>\nBut I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight\u2014<br \/>\n\u201cHappy <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> to all, and to all a good night!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house&#8230; For years we have discussed what it would be like to get together to just read A Visit from St. Nicholas. Well, why can&#8217;t we do it? What better year than this year to make it happen? In traditional MyMerryChristmas fashion we&#8217;ll just do [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31544,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":23,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31481","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}