Troy Sentinel Troy Sentinel The Troy Sentinel was a semi-weekly newspaper published between 1823-1832, which served Rensselaer County in upstate New York. It was published in historic downtown Troy at 225 River Street. The newspaper is famously known for the first published edition of the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas", also known as "The Night Before Christmas" and “Twas the Night Before Christmas," its first line. It was published anonymously on December 23, 1823 and is generally attributed to Clement Clarke Moore. In July 2012 Gramercy Communications moved their corporate offices into the former home of the "Troy Sentinel". The company
A Visit from St. Nicholas a result, "New Yorkers embraced Moore's child-centered version of Christmas as if they had been doing it all their lives." In "An American Anthology, 1787–1900", editor Edmund Clarence Stedman reprinted the Moore version of the poem, including the German spelling of "Donder and Blitzen" that he adopted, rather than the earlier Dutch version from 1823 "Dunder and Blixem." Both phrases translate as "Thunder and Lightning" in English, though the German word for thunder is "Donner" and the words in modern Dutch would be "Donder en Bliksem." Modern printings frequently incorporate alterations that reflect changing linguistic and cultural sensibilities. For example,