Singable Picture Book Spotlight, The Night Before Christmas
Posted on: December 8, 2010
What’s Christmas without reading “The Night Before Christmas?” You can SING it, too!
You will find these books included in my complete list of
Singable Picture Books for Christmas,
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/singable-picture-books-for-christmas/
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The Night Before Christmas
Poem by Clement C. Moore
Performed by Peter, Paul and Mary
Solo Performance of Music Setting by Noel PAUL Stookey
Music by Noel Paul Stookey
Illustrated by Eric Puybaret
(This book comes packaged with a CD recording of Noel Paul Stookey’s performance of “Night Before Christmas” as well as a reading by Mary Travers, and Peter, Paul and Mary’s recording of “A’Soalin”)
This is a beautiful and enchanting book. Puybaret yet again makes magic in his pictures painted with graphical shapes and deep, brilliant, lavish color.
This sweet musical setting stands out because it is the only one I’ve found which actually uses the entire poem as it is written.
The song was originally released on Peter Paul and Mary’s album ”A Holiday Celebration with the New York Choral Society,
“T’was the Night Before Christmas” is Track 9 on the CD, you can preview or purchase it here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003A994V4/ref=dm_dp_trk9?ie=UTF8&qid=1291805666&sr=8-3-spell
Every other musical setting of this song, even ones with catchier or more singable tunes, change the poem, move verses, or cut them out…so you can’t use the tunes to sing with the books.
An interesting wiki article about the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” which we generally know as “The Night Before Christmas.” The poem was originally published anonymously in 1823 with authorship attributed to Clement Clarke Moore (authorship is, like Shakespere’s plays, subject to dispute), here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Visit_from_St._Nicholas
OH! The books! This poem has inspired so many absolutely wonderful Singable Picture Books…and here are just a few:
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The Night Before Christmas
Poem by Clement C. Moore
Musical settings by Various Artists
Sing the Unedited Text with Musical Setting by Noel Paul Stookey
Illustrated by Mary Engelbreit
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The Night Before Christmas
Poem by Clement C. Moore
Musical settings by Various Artists
Sing the Unedited Text with Musical Setting by Noel Paul Stookey
Illustrated by James Marshall
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The Night Before Christmas
Poem by Clement C. Moore
Musical settings by Various Artists
Sing the Unedited Text with Musical Setting by Noel Paul Stookey
Illustrated by Grandma Moses
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The Night Before Christmas
Poem by Clement C. Moore
Musical settings by Various Artists
Sing the Unedited Text with Musical Setting by Noel Paul Stookey
Illustrated by Christian Birmingham
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The Night Before Christmas
Poem by Clement C. Moore
Musical settings by Various Artists
Sing the Unedited Text with Musical Setting by Noel Paul Stookey
Illustrated by Wendy Watson
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The Night Before Christmas
Poem by Clement C. Moore
Musical settings by Various Artists
Sing the Unedited Text with Musical Setting by Noel Paul Stookey
Illustrated by Bruce Whatley
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The Night Before Christmas
Poem by Clement C. Moore
Musical settings by Various Artists
Sing the Unedited Text with Musical Setting by Noel Paul Stookey
Illustrated by Gennady Spirin
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The Night Before Christmas
Poem by Clement C. Moore
Musical settings by Various Artists
Sing the Unedited Text with Musical Setting by Noel Paul Stookey
Illustrated by Jan Brett
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The Night Before Christmas
Poem by Clement C. Moore
Musical settings by Various Artists
Sing the Unedited Text with Musical Setting by Noel Paul Stookey
Illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa
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The Night Before Christmas
Poem by Clement C. Moore
Musical settings by Various Artists
Sing the Unedited Text with Musical Setting by Noel Paul Stookey
Illustrated by Corinne Malvern
You could build a whole library just to house all the illustrated versions of this poem. This site has captured the images of many:
http://classicfairytales.web.fc2.com/the_night_before_christmas.html
A lovely YouTube video with a musical setting of the poem (although, not the whole poem),
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNrUhePsdCA
This “Night Before Christmas” isn’t a song, but expertly performed by Robin Williams with delightful illustrations,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQQ7GNi4NiA
I like this one, too:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUzIF4eYRkg&NR=1
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FOOTNOTE
God Rest Ye – Merrie Gents!
My paternal grandfather, Leslie C. Everson, went to DePauw University between the wars. He was a writer for “The Yellow Crab” which was described in DePauw’s yearbook of 1930 as “DePauw’s Humorous magazine and official publication of Sigma Delta Chi,” and had a friend (John Rupe) who illustrated. Together, they came up with this raucous adaptation of “T’was the Night Before Christmas,” this is pretty risky stuff for having been written during Prohibition!
(Click the image, just once, to see a larger copy)
GOD REST YE – MERRIE GENTS
T’was the night before Christmas,
And all through the house,
The boys were engaged
In a wild carouse.
There was music and girls,
There was dancing, and well -
Perhaps there were liquors,
bug, sh! – mustn’t tell!
Till well past the midnight,
That made whoopee rare,
While each irate neighbor
Was tearing his hair.
Then – a ring at the door,
A resounding kick,
Each stopped where he stood,
(Perhaps t’was St. Nick!)
Swung open the door,
And who should be there,
But Michael O’Malley,
And Patrick O’Hair.
Enter Pat, enter Mike,
And O’Toole, with their clubs,
Packed them out to the wagon,
And down to the jug.
L’Envoi
T’was the night before Christmas,
And all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring,
Not even a mouse!!
Merry Christmas
Les Everson
John Rupe
(Special thanks to BIG MO for scanning this for me!)
