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 Christmas or Account of a visit from St. Nicholas honors the poem's original language in a definitive keepsake volume.