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One Strange Thing: Paranormal & True-Weird Mysteries

The Night Before

One Strange Thing: Paranormal & True-Weird Mysteries

One Strange Thing

True Crime, History

4.4697 Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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. 


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Hoted, Written, and Researched by Laurah Norton

Produced by Maura Currie

Engineered by Brandon Schexnayder


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, strangers, to the parents out there, this is a mystery that may not be suitable for our youngest strangers.

0:08.5

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.

1:20.2

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

1:55.7

from 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.

2:16.0

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

...

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