Elton John – The was the Night Before Christma

 Elton John – ’Twas the Night Before Christmas: origin and context of the Christmas narration

This recording presents Elton John in a role distinct from his musical career. Instead of singing, he offers a spoken reading of one of the most enduring Christmas texts in the English-speaking world, transforming a 19th-century poem into a contemporary Christmas message through voice alone.

The text read by Elton John is the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, first published anonymously in 1823 in the United States and later traditionally attributed to Clement Clarke Moore. Over nearly two centuries, the poem became a cornerstone of Christmas culture and played a decisive role in shaping the modern image of Santa Claus as a joyful figure who travels in a sleigh pulled by reindeer and visits homes on Christmas Eve.

In December 2022, Elton John recorded this narration as a special seasonal piece. The recording was not conceived as a song, single, or album track, but as a standalone spoken interpretation intended to honor a long-standing Christmas tradition. Its short duration and direct delivery place emphasis on storytelling rather than performance, recalling the familiar atmosphere of a story read aloud on Christmas Eve.

For generations, A Visit from St. Nicholas has been read in family settings, schools, and holiday gatherings, often passed down orally as part of Christmas Eve rituals. Readings by well-known public figures are part of this established cultural practice, helping to preserve the poem’s place in popular memory while introducing it to new audiences.

Elton John’s participation fits squarely within this tradition. Recorded late in his career, the narration reflects a reflective and understated approach, relying solely on voice and text. Rather than reinterpret the poem, the reading respects its original structure and language, allowing the words themselves to carry the emotional weight associated with Christmas nostalgia, continuity, and shared memory.

What remains is a timeless spoken record: a classic Christmas poem, written in the early 19th century, read in the 21st century by one of the most recognizable voices in popular music, bridging eras through a simple act of storytelling.

Below is the complete poem as traditionally published:

’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew

With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too—

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.

His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly

That shook, when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

_____

The narration of the poem is available on my Internet Archive page at the following link:

https://archive.org/details/elton-john-twas-the-night-before-christmas_202512

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