<P> Moore's conception of Saint Nicholas was borrowed from his friend Washington Irving (see below), but Moore portrayed his "jolly old elf" as arriving on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day . At the time that Moore wrote the poem, Christmas Day was overtaking New Year's Day as the preferred genteel family holiday of the season, but some Protestants viewed Christmas as the result of "Catholic ignorance and deception" and still had reservations . By having Saint Nicholas arrive the night before, Moore "deftly shifted the focus away from Christmas Day with its still - problematic religious associations ." As a result, "New Yorkers embraced Moore's child - centered version of Christmas as if they had been doing it all their lives ." </P> <P> 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 ." </P> <P> Modern printings frequently incorporate alterations that reflect changing linguistic and cultural sensibilities . For example, 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 . Note that 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"' and with "goodnight" as a single word . </P> <P> Four hand - written copies of the poem are known to exist and three are in museums, including the New - York Historical Society library . The fourth copy, written out and signed by Clement Clarke Moore as a gift to a friend in 1860, was sold by one private collector to another in December 2006 . It was purchased for $280,000 by an unnamed "chief executive officer of a media company" who resides in New York City, according to Dallas, Texas - based Heritage Auctions which brokered the private sale . </P>

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