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
Jolly Old Saint Nicholas Jolly Old Saint Nicholas "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" is a Christmas song that originated with a poem by Emily Huntington Miller (1833-1913), published as "Lilly's Secret" in "The Little Corporal Magazine" in December 1865. The song's lyrics have also been attributed to Benjamin Hanby, who wrote a similar song in the 1860s, Up on the Housetop. However, the lyrics now in common use closely resemble Miller's 1865 poem. The music has been attributed to John Piersol McCaskey, a school principal and former Mayor of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who claimed to have written the song in 1867. The "Johnny" mentioned in the