“A Visit from St. Nicholas,” also known as “The Night Before Christmas,” is a poem first published anonymously in 1823 and later attributed to Clement C. Moore.
Read the poem: http://www.the-north-pole.com/carols/nightbefore.html
Listen to the Librivox audio edition: https://librivox.org/twas-the-night-before-christmas-by-clement-c-moore (Nine different readings to choose from!)
View a rare 1862 copy of “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” at the Library of Congress: http://lccn.loc.gov/24005582 (choose from the HTML version or download the PDF)
See the largest scanned collection of “The Night Before Christmas” vintage books on the internet: http://www.visitfromstnicholas.com
Watch this video of an illustrated children’s book as read by Perry Como in 1953: