Twas The Night Before Christmas

TigerBlog was recently in Florida, which is an interesting place to be this time of year.

You know those inflatable snowmen and Santas? They look somewhat uncomfortable in the 75 degree sunshine.  

Also, walking on the beach with your feet in the ocean at this time of year? That's different.  

Anyway, back in the Northeast with the snow and the wintry feelings, things seem a bit more normal for this holiday. Twas the night before Christmas, right?

TigerBlog hopes that Princeton's athletes, coaches, staff and fans are doing their best Christmas traditions right about now, whether those are religious, cultural or whatever. Do you know which U.S. President signed the bill making Christmas a federal holiday? It was the same bill that also recognized The Fourth of July and Thanksgiving as federal holidays.

The answer is: Ulysses S. Grant in 1870. 

It was actually the morning before Christmas when TigerBlog went down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out who actually wrote that poem, officially entitled "A Visit From St. Nicholas." To this day, it appears, there are scholars and historians who are split on the subject, between a man named Clement Clarke Moore and another named Henry Livingston Jr. 

There is no dispute that the poem was first published on Dec. 23, 1823, in a newspaper called The Troy Sentinel. There is also no dispute that TB can recite the entire thing from memory, along with "The Cat In The Hat."

As he looked deeper and deeper into the theories about the two possible authors, TB was amazed to see that as recently as early this century there were two competing books published on the subject, one by a professor from Vassar and one by a professor from UMass. 

TB did learn that Henry Livingston Jr. was a major in the Continental Army and that Clement Clarke Moore's father Benjamin Moore 1) was the president of Columbia University from 1801-1811 and 2) had nothing to do with the paint business. Clement himself spent 44 years as a Columbia trustee.  

As tomorrow is Christmas, TigerBlog would like to share with you a Santa Claus joke: 

"Did you hear that Santa Claus did the DNA ancestry testing? Turns out he's 1.5 percent Polish and 98.5 percent North-Polish."

Not bad, right?  

In the meantime, here is what TB offered up last year on Christmas Eve: 

TigerBlog has a large collection of Christmas songs on his iTunes.

He's always been a big fan of Christmas music. He was a trumpet player in high school, and he loved when the concert band, or the jazz band, played holiday music. He was in fact part of a great jazzy version of "Winter Wonderland" that he still whistles every now and then. 

What's his favorite Christmas song? 

It's probably not a shock to anyone who has read this for awhile to learn that it's "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band version, of course. That's a big sticking point with TB.

It's the song, but it's also the artist. He's not interested in hearing anyone sing "Silver Bells" except for Dean Martin. The same goes for "Silent Night" and Emmylou Harris. 

If not his old high school jazz band, then it has to be Darlene Love's version of "Winter Wonderland."

"The Christmas Song?" If it's not Nat King Cole's voice that starts out with "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire," it's likely TB won't even make it to "Jack Frost nipping at your nose." 

And does he even have to mention "White Christmas" and Bing?

He has his favorites. 

Having said all that, he does have to give honorable mention to the Beach Boys jazzed up version of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town."

Oh, and you know what he cannot stand, not even a little bit? TV commercials that substitute its own lyrics for classic Christmas songs. TB would rather listen to fingernails on blackboards.

What else? 

The surest way to get TigerBlog to tear up is invite him over, click HERE and fast-forward to the 7:00 mark.

Never fails.

If you don't want to go through all that, then the link takes you to the last scene of the Christmas classic "It's A Wonderful Life."

The line that always, 100 percent of the time, brings a tear to TB's eyes is Harry Bailey's toast to his brother. TB could watch it in early July on a day far removed from Christmas and still it'll have the same effect.

Want to see some more of TB's favorite Christmas clips? Then watch one of these:

* the end scene from "A Christmas Story"

* bonus scene from the same movie

* Charlie Brown makes a bold purchase

* the Grinch's heart grows

* now this is a duet

* and this is a ballet

* this one is the greatest ever version of any Christmas song ever performed 

* this one is second

* this is really cute

* and you can't watch the last one without this one

* this is long, but cute

* oh, and here's one more. Is this a Christmas song, or a show tune? It's both.

* you can thank Princeton's own Jeff Ingold for this one.

* and this one too 

* and this one is 4:38 well spent. 

* a new one for this year 

Merry Christmas Tigers. Hopefully it's safe and happy. 

And he'll leave you today with this, which, unfortunately, is not available on iTunes, at least not by these guys. And this one especially has to be these guys: