In 2006 Bob Dylan surprised the listeners to his satellite radio show, Theme Time Radio Hour, with a reading of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.

The poem first appeared in print on December 23, 1823.  No author was cited for the work then called A Visit from St. Nicholas. In 1837 literature professor Clement Clarke Moore claimed authorship. He’d written it for his family. Unbeknownst to him, his housekeeper had submitted it to a New York newspaper. But Henry Livingston, Jr  said Moore was wrong. He claimed that his father had been reciting A Visit from St. Nicholas for 15 years prior to the poem’s publishing debut.

Whoever wrote the poem, when Bob Dylan reads the poem, it takes it to another level.

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