hung by the chimney with care: the 1823 poem

one line did a lot of quiet work: "the stockings were hung by the chimney with care." here's where it came from.

the paper

• "a visit from st. nicholas" was first published anonymously in the troy (new york) sentinel on dec. 23, 1823.
• clement clarke moore claimed credit nearly 15 years later. he said a friend had sent it in without his knowledge, and that it was meant just for his children.
• the family of henry livingston jr. later claimed livingston wrote it, and the library of congress notes some modern scholars support that view.

the socks in the poem

the stockings show up twice. once at the start, hung by the chimney "in hopes that st. nicholas soon would be there", and once near the end, when he "filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk" and went back up the chimney.

two lines, one sock, two hundred winters.

a stranger santa than you'd think

• the library of congress points out that nowhere in the poem is st. nicholas called "santa", and his fur isn't said to be red, just covered in "ashes and soot".
• the library's card catalog lists more than 300 different editions and adaptations of the poem.
• the red-coated santa most people picture came later, from thomas nast, whose "merry old santa claus" first appeared january 1, 1881 in harper's weekly.

the season around it

christmas trees weren't really a thing in the united states until the 1840s, and christmas wasn't a federal holiday until 1870. smithsonian magazine adds that in the mid-1800s, for a little while, the new york times wrote that trees had almost completely replaced stockings. the socks came back.