Classic favorite

This is my all time favorite Christmas book to read. I read it almost every year and enjoy it just as much as the first time. It is even more enjoyable to read to the grand kids. ( )

Originally published anonymously in The Troy Sentinel in 1823, Clement Clarke Moore's famous Christmas poem, A Visit from St. Nicholas, which celebrates the nighttime visit of Santa Claus to one sleeping household, is here presented in a gorgeous over-sized picture-book edition, with a slightly modernized text and beautiful artwork by Charles Santore. Each two-page spread features one or two verses of the poem, with full-color artwork depicting the scene mentioned in the accompanying text.

Although quite familiar with A Visit from St. Nicholas, this lovely adaptation by Santore is the first picture-book based upon the celebrated poem that I have read. Not surprisingly, given my fondness for the poem itself, I found the text here delightful - it rolls off the tongue, when read aloud! - but I also greatly enjoyed the artwork, which captures the beauty and magic of that late night visit. My favorite scene, and one I am glad was retained in this adaptation, given contemporary concerns about smoking, is the one in which wreaths of smoke circle around Saint Nicholas' head. The swirling white smoke just makes that particular scene seem especially enchanting! Recommended to anyone looking for beautiful picture-book presentations of Clarke's immortal poem. ( )

This is the classic christmas story about the night santa comes. This book is a rhyme about how all things are quiet before santa comes and the christmas tradition. It started when a man woke up and saw santa flying around the neighborhood, he wasnt worried. He saw santa do his work and fly up the chimney and his sleigh disappears into the night. I would use this book around the holidays to teach rhyme.

I enjoyed reading this book because it brought me back to my childhood days when I believed in Santa. This book was written in poetry form. Before the actual story starts, there is the actual poem for the night before Christmas that was written a long time ago. I liked this feature because in a way it foreshadows the contents of the book and how it will be formatted. As soon as I looked on the first page, I got the Christmas feel already. Just by looking at the illustrations, it immediately told me that it was night time on Christmas Eve. I knew because there was snow outside, wreaths throughout the house and the moon was out. Throughout the story they kept the snow illustration apparent. I think this was so the reader didn’t lose the idea of the setting that was put into place. The language in this book was in the form of a poem and everything rhymed. This made it easier to follow because I read it as a song. I also noticed that on each page, the first letter of the stanza was always the biggest and had a design behind it. I also liked the fact that on each page, there was only one stanza, so it wasn’t overwhelming to read. The illustrations also looked very realistic and really set the scene for Christmas. On one page they were talking about hearing Santa outside and the paged opened from the middle. So on the outside flap there was illustrations of the house and on the inside flap, there was an illustration of the scenery outside and you could see Santa’s sleigh with all the reindeer. I liked this part of the book because I actually got to see what it looked like outside on this night. I noticed that sometimes the words would match up with the pictures. For example, on the first page, the words were “not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse”. Then I looked closely at the picture and there was a mouse sleeping on the steps. Small features like this kept me engaged and it made me read it more than twice so I could find more things just like it. The book was written in first person but I couldn’t tell who the person was. At first I thought it was from a child’s point of view, but the father was the only one that was awake and got out of bed. I do wish the author made this part of the book a bit clearer though. ( )