The Night before Christmas by Clement Moore A pop-up by Robert Sabuda

Day Three
Christmas is the perfect time, of course, to revisit the famous poem that begins with the lines "T'was the night before Christmas when all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a mouse."

There are so many delicious words and phrases in this poem - words/phrases I suspect you will only know if you have heard this poem, hopefully as a young child:

"visions of sugarplums"
"kerchief"
"threw up the sash"
"the moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow"
"luster of midday"
"more rapid than eagles his coursers they came"
"he looked like a peddler"
"His droll little mouth"
"away they all flew like the down of a thistle"


My copy of is presented in a pop-up book. We have two Christmas pop-ups by Robert Sabuda in our school library but because the contents are so fragile we only loan them to teachers. That is why I was very keen to own one for myself so that I could share with with visiting children and adults.

I am in awe of the paper engineering made by Robert Sabuda. Many years ago I even found a box with 26 pop-up Christmas cards. Over time I posted them to friends and I now have just two left.

Here is a page from The Night Before Christmas.

Here is a video where you can see all the pop-ups from this book in action.  On his web site Robert Sabuda generously shows you how to make many different pop-ups for yourself. This could be a fun holiday project for the whole family.

Read more about the invention of pop-up books here. They are not as new as you may have imagined. How does 1847 sound?

It would be interesting to show a group of children a number of illustrated versions of this classic poem and have a discussion about which they like the best. So many very famous illustrators have added their creativity to showcase this poem. Here are some you might like to look at including two famous Australian illustrators Bruce Whatley and Robert Ingpen.  Click each name to see their books: Arthur Rackham, Charles Santore, Christian Birmingham, Holly Hobbie, Jan Brett, Bruce Whatley, and Robert Ingpen. Also take a look at this video of Barbara Reid's work in plasticine.

Here is another Christmas pop-up by Robert Sabuda.

Just had to share this one too - The Night Before Christmas Little Golden book illustrated by Eloise Wilkin and published in 1955. It is one I need to keep an eye out for. I do like gentle soft focus illustrations of Eloise Wilkin.

Just for fun I also spied a brand new book the other day - The night before, the night before Christmas by Kes Gray. Finally we do have an Australian version illustrated by the very talented Kilmeny Niland.