'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house...You know the rest, right?
Fans of Clement Clarke Moore's famous poem have a big reason to head uptown this Sunday, when the 107th annual reading of A Visit from St. Nicholas will take place at the Church of the Intercession in Washington Heights. This year Joy Reid, political analyst at MSNBC, will recite the holiday classic.
The free reading will be followed by a lantern procession headed by St. Nicholas himself, who will be guiding visitors across the street to Trinity Church Cemetery & Mausoleum for a wreath-laying at Moore's grave.
If you're more into the historical side of things, you can sign up for local author Eric K. Washington's Annual Uptown Trinity Church Cemetery Holiday Tour ($25), a two-hour walk through the cemetery that starts before the reading. Besides a visit to Moore's final resting place, stops might include the graves of John Jacob Astor and various New York City mayors.
Prefer to do it yourself? Give yourself or the kids this copy of an 1870 version of The Night Before Christmas illustrated by William Roger Snow. After you've read it, you can head up to Trinity Church Cemetery and pay respects to Moore using Find a Grave. The site gives you the exact latitude and longitude of Moore's tombstone, and if you're using your phone and click on the details, Google Maps does the rest. Have fun!
