The Night Before

One Strange Thing: True Paranormal Mysteries

Laurah Norton

Paranormalpodcast, History, True Crime, Paranormal, Mystery

4.6 • 763 Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It's a very One Strange Thing Holiday as we count down to the season with re-releases of some of our favorite episodes--and a special treat awaits at the end. For two hundred years, a very famous poem has heralded the holiday season, and for some, the arrival of Santa Claus—but perhaps less known is the mystery it brings along with it. Whether you know it as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" or "A Visit from St. Nicholas," there's more to this one than mice and stockings and ho ho ho. One Strange Thing: True Paranormal Mysteries explores the archives of the unexplained, blending rigorous historical research with a wry, skeptical wit to investigate true supernatural stories and baffling mysteries that made headlines. Dive into our Episode Mystery Archive — a curated, topic-organized source for documented hauntings, UFO sightings, cryptids, folklore, and bizarre true mysteries. Check it out here! https://www.onestrangethingpodcast.com/episodes-by-topic-mystery-archive This originally ran as Episode 81. Sources on our website: https://www.onestrangethingpodcast.com/ Join us on Patreon for early release and ad-free episodes, exclusive stories, and bonus episodes: https://www.patreon.com/OneStrangeThing Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onestrangethingpod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/One-Strange-Thing-114307627035607 Subscribe to our Substack: https://substack.com/@onestrangething We have partnered with Libsyn to handle our advertising/sponsorship requests. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email ad-sales@libsyn.com or click the link below to get started. https://advertising.libsyn.com/OneStrangeThing 2025 All Rights Reserved One Strange Thing Podcast & The Fall Line Podcast LLC

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, strangers, to the parents out there, this is a mystery that may not be suitable for our youngest strangers.
0:08.4	It's a tale about holiday magic.
0:10.9	So, listener discretion is advised.
0:18.1	I'm Lauren Norton, and this is one strange thing, the show where we search the nation's news archives, for stories that can't quite be explained.
0:52.3	Strangers, no matter your belief systems or winter holiday traditions, we're pretty sure that you're familiar with a particularly famous poem first published in the early 19th century. It's one so famous that we'd bet you can recite the first lines right along with us.
0:58.7	Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house,
1:02.4	not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
1:05.6	The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
1:08.5	in the hopes that St. Nicholas would soon be there.
1:12.6	Yes, that's a visit from St. Nicholas, better known as the night before Christmas or
1:18.1	twas the night before.
1:20.1	We'll take any variations as correct answers in our holiday jeopardy, and we'll use
1:25.3	all of them too, just for fun. As poems go, that one is not bad. It's pretty
1:32.1	good even. Personally, we would have worked in at least one reference to the Mothman, or an uneasy
1:38.4	spirit, or at least one unbreakable curse. Alas, no one ever consults us regarding what makes for an absolute
1:47.0	holiday banger. Even so, we'll admit this one is a classic. In any case, the poem, a visit from
1:55.9	St. Nicholas, managed to become wildly popular without those extremely important elements.
2:02.9	In fact, since its first publication in the Troy Sentinel newspaper in 1823,
2:08.7	yes, this year is its 200th anniversary,
2:12.8	it has become a true Christmas tradition.
2:15.9	Even more than that, it has shaped our modern image and our
2:19.9	story of Santa Claus, his reindeer, and, well, the night before Christmas. As Carnegie
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Laurah Norton, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Laurah Norton and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.