‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap[.]
A Visit from St. Nicholas, Clement Clarke Moore
Clement Clarke Moore, a Greek and Oriental literature professor at Columbia University (USA), like many parents, loved reading poetry to his children at night. He handled it responsibly and sometimes made up fairy tale poems himself that were not suitable for the public and the press but solely for his family. Therefore, the professor could hardly wait for one of his works to be considered “classic” and for the protagonist’s idea of Christmas to be changed worldwide (and forever). But so it turned out.
At the beginning of the 19th century, there were vague ideas about Santa Claus. Rather, at that time, he was still Saint Nicholas (Nikolaus-Niklaus-Klaus), whose image was brought to the North American continent by the Dutch colonists. The character was not that famous then and certainly far from universal love. Less than 50 years had passed since American independence began at that time. The young country went through the time of the formation of all structures and cultures and urgently needed the signs of self-identification. And here, Moore’s poems came in extremely useful.
However, the professor was not guided by high bases. He just wanted to please his children before Christmas, and so he came up with a magical image of Santa for them: that he looks like a kind elf old man, flies across the sky on a reindeer sleigh, enters the house through the chimney, and leaves gifts in stockings, which are dried by the fireplace. And he wrote it all down in rhymes. So in December 1822, the poem The Night Before Christmas or Twas the Night Before Christmas appeared, which is now widely known as A Visit from St. Nicholas.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow[.]
Clement Moore first read the poem about Santa to his wife and children, then to close friends. Unlike the author, family friends immediately recognized the masterpiece in verse and sent the manuscript to journalists. On the eve of the next holiday, December 23, 1823, The Night Before Christmas was published in the New York newspaper Sentinel and had great success. It was reprinted many times, and by 1840 all Americans knew who Santa was. This gave the young country an image that was destined to become an icon of American cultural expansion.
The poem was successful, but not the author. The story of the poem developed based on anonymity. Moore forbade publishers to put his name under the poem, fearing to spoil his reputation as a serious scientist. He came out of the shadows only after more than twenty years, when he finally resigned himself to his poetic genius and published a collection of author’s poetry, which also included the festive poem.
In the plot of “Christmas,” Santa Claus is seen only by one person, the father of a large family. When Santa lays out gifts in stockings, children sleep sweetly:” The children were nestled all snug in their beds, / While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads [.]” In the poem, the children dreamed of sugar plums, an American Christmas sweet.
The video shows the Dance Of The Sugar-Plum Fairy from the ballet The Nutcracker.
Nowadays, the recipe seems simple. But the chefs of the 17th century (then sugar plums appeared) did not think so. The point is not even that spices and nuts were exotic and were not cheap (although this is also true): it is not so easy to chop nuts and dried fruits by hand, without blenders and food processors. So before the industrial revolution of the 1860s, these little sweet balls were a gastronomic feat and luxury item.
Sugar plums are now, alas, not the most common Christmas tradition in the United States. Americans make honey balls much less often than, for example, the British make their Christmas plum pudding. But even if only because Moore’s poem is known to all residents of the States and the last line “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night” is used as a classic wish for happiness at Christmas, the sweet itself will not be forgotten.
Recipe for the spicy honey balls Sugar Plums
Ingredienzen (für 16-20 Bällchen):
Composition (for 16-20 balls):
Roasted almonds – 0.75 cups
Prunes – 0.5 cups
Dried apricots – 0.5 cups
Dried cranberries – 0.25 cups
Dried cherries – 0.25 cups
Orange zest – 0.5 tsp
Honey – 0.25 cups
Powdered sugar – 0.25 cups
Ground cinnamon – 0.5 tsp
Ground nutmeg – 0.25 tsp
Ground coriander – 0.25 tsp
Salt – a pinch
Coconut flakes for breading
Cooking Method:
1. Grind all dried fruits, almonds, and orange zest in a food processor until finely chopped.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, and salt. Add the mixture from the food processor to the spices, mix. Pour in honey, stir.
3. Form the mixture into walnut-sized balls. You can place one whole almond in the center of the ball. Roll each ball in coconut flakes to bread it. Keep refrigerated.
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