The Night Before Christmas

Another page from my copy of The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, wonderfully illustrated by Robert Ingpen. Two traditions I have on Christmas Eve are to read this lovely poem whilst looking at its fabulous illustrations, and to listen live on Radio 4 to A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College Cambridge (one my mum never missed). Today I also watched my favourite adaptation of my favourite novel - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, the film being Scrooge made in 1951 with Alasdair Sim. One thing I've never done before on Christmas Eve is to spend an hour and a half in the garden!  I was topping up the bird feeders, cleaning the bird bath, collecting leaves, cutting back dead leaves on annuals and giving the lawn a mow as a quick way to clear it of remaining leaves. Another very mild day at 14C this afternoon, still very windy though. 

This year is the 200th anniversary of the publication of A Night Before Christmas on 23rd December 1823, it was thought to have been written on Christmas Eve in 1822 for his daughters. A Christmas Carol was published 20 years after this poem's publication in 1843. I'd really recommend the publications of the poem and of A Christmas Carol that were both illustrated by Robert Ingpen.