A MarkInTexas Made-For-TV Christmas: The Night Before Christmas (1968)

Thanks to its status as arguably the most famous poem in the English language, there have been a lot of adaptions over the years of A Visit From St. Nicholas, aka The Night Before Christmas.  This despite the fact that the poem itself is relatively short, running only 56 lines. That's enough time to fill, say, a short that runs under 10 minutes, but any longer adaption will need a lot of filler.

In addition to the marionette adaption in 1952's The Spirit of Christmas, which was discussed earlier this month, the poem served as the basis of two mid-70s specials, an animated one from Rankin-Bass, which would run on CBS for the better part of the next decade, and a live action one starring Paul Lynde, which quickly vanished after its one showing.  Before those two, and after Spirit, came 1968's The Night Before Christmas, which not only adapted the poem, but presented a (highly fictionalized) look at its writing.

The special is about Clement C. Moore, a professor who, at least in this special, has three young children.  As he's leaving for a speaking tour at the beginning, his oldest daughter, Charity gives an ominous cough.  In short time, she is deathly ill with pneumonia, with Clement and his wife, Catherine, standing vigil at her bedside and Clement regretting he was unable to find the book about Santa Claus she had so specifically asked for.  Of course, he is immediately inspired to write the poem.

The poem is presented as basically a special within the special, taking up about nine minutes, with the poem being sung by the Norman Luboff Choir, a choral group that was prominent in its day, but has now been largely forgotten.  This segment contains a more cartoony animation style than the more realistic animation of the rest of the special.  The odd thing is, in a biopic of the poet of The Night Before Christmas, the sung version alters the lyrics several times.

The special is not historically accurate.  The poem was first published in 1823, when Charity would have been 7, much younger than she seems here.  She is also presented as the oldest, but in real life, she had an older sister, and there's no indication that she had pneumonia around Christmas, or that the poem was written to cheer her up.  In reality, Charity would die in 1830 at the age of 14, the same year that Catharine Moore also died.  Indeed, of Moore's nine children, three would die before him.  The special also doesn't touch on how Moore became quite wealthy, not from the poem, but from selling off his family estate on the island of Manhattan as New York City spread northward.  Today, the neighborhood of Chelsea occupies what was his land.  It also doesn't even hint at the controversary that surrounds Moore's purported authorship, and the theories that someone else is the true author of the poem

Charity might have eventually died in real life, but of course she doesn't in the special, as she makes a miraculous recovery just in time for Christmas.  The special itself is pretty standard stuff, with so-so animation and, other than the poem, a few forgettable songs.

On this night before Christmas, Moore's poem will be read in millions of households worldwide.  Very few will watch The Night Before Christmas.  It's not awful, but its not one of the better specials out there.

Next time: As it is Christmas Eve, this is a wrap for A MarkInTexas Made-For-TV Christmas for 2020.  We'll be back next November for the next installment.  Meanwhile, coming in June, and lasting all summer is another series I'm quite excited about.  MarkInTexas Is Watching All Of Your Specials, Charlie Brown debuts Sunday, June 6 with A Charlie Brown Christmas and will continue every Sunday through August watching the Peanuts gang's made-for-TV specials in chronological order.  See you then, and Merry Christmas!