Exquisitely detailed drawings by Matt Tavares embody the spirit of a magical night now in a lavish, full-size gift edition marking the two-hundredth anniversary of the classic poem.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
Once upon a time, children imagined St. Nicholas as a stern, skinny bishop who was as likely to dole out discipline as Christmas presents. But thanks to the poem “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas”—written by Clement C. Moore in 1822 and published the next year in the Troy Sentinel—a plumper, merrier St. Nick was born, transformed into the sleigh-riding, chimney-diving jolly old elf we now call Santa Claus. With gorgeous monochrome illustrations by Matt Tavares that are meticulously true to pre-Victorian times, this reissue of the holiday favorite ’Twas the Night Before ChristmasOr Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas honors the poem’s original language in a definitive keepsake volume.
Matt Tavares is the author-illustrator of numerous acclaimed picture books, including Red and Lulu and Dasher: How a Brave Little Doe Changed Christmas Forever, as well as Becoming Babe Ruth, Growing Up Pedro,and other sports biographies. He is the illustrator of Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by Jeff Gottesfeld and The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup, among many other picture books. Matt Tavares lives in Maine.
Exquisitely detailed drawings by Matt Tavares embody the spirit of a magical night now in a lavish, full-size gift edition marking the two-hundredth anniversary of the classic poem.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
Once upon a time, children imagined St. Nicholas as a stern, skinny bishop who was as likely to dole out discipline as Christmas presents. But thanks to the poem “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas”—written by Clement C. Moore in 1822 and published the next year in the Troy Sentinel—a plumper, merrier St. Nick was born, transformed into the sleigh-riding, chimney-diving jolly old elf we now call Santa Claus. With gorgeous monochrome illustrations by Matt Tavares that are meticulously true to pre-Victorian times, this reissue of the holiday favorite ’Twas the Night Before ChristmasOr Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas honors the poem’s original language in a definitive keepsake volume.
Creators
Matt Tavares is the author-illustrator of numerous acclaimed picture books, including Red and Lulu and Dasher: How a Brave Little Doe Changed Christmas Forever, as well as Becoming Babe Ruth, Growing Up Pedro,and other sports biographies. He is the illustrator of Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by Jeff Gottesfeld and The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup, among many other picture books. Matt Tavares lives in Maine.
