Santa Claus's reindeer colored lithographic illustrations, was published by William B. Gilley as a small paperback book entitled "The Children's Friend: A New-Year's Present, to the Little Ones from Five to Twelve". The 1823 poem by Clement C. Moore "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (also known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas") is largely credited for the contemporary Christmas lore that includes eight named reindeer. The relevant segment of the poem reads: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer, with a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it
Saint Nicholas earliest mentions of Saint Nicholas indicate that, by the sixth century, his cult was already well-established. Less than two hundred years after Saint Nicholas's probable death, the Eastern Emperor Theodosius II (ruled 401 – 450) ordered the building of the Church of Saint Nicholas in Myra, which thereby preserves an early mention of his name. The Byzantine historian Procopius also mentions that the Emperor Justinian I (ruled 527 – 565) renovated churches in Constantinople dedicated to Saint Nicholas and Saint Priscus, which may have originally been built as early as 490. Nicholas's name also occurs as "Nicholas of Myra of