'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1977 TV special) it later received an Award of Excellence from the Film Advisory Board. "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" was never rebroadcast by ABC or any other U.S. television network. To date, it has not been made commercially available on DVD and, except for a one-time screening at a New York City retro film and television festival in 2001, it has not been seen since its only telecast. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1977 TV special) Twas the Night Before Christmas is a Christmas television special loosely inspired by the 1823 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement Clarke Moore. It
A Visit from St. Nicholas "breast" in "The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow" is frequently bowdlerized to "crest"; the archaic "ere" in "But I heard him exclaim ere he drove out of sight" is frequently replaced with "as". This change implies that Santa Claus made his exclamation during the moment that he disappeared from view, while the exclamation came before his disappearance in the original. "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night" is frequently rendered with the traditional English locution "Merry Christmas". The poem has been set to music by composer Ken Darby (1909 – 1992), and by British child