The Night Before Christmas is an orchestral work written by the American composer Aaron Dai in 2006.
The work is performed by a full orchestra and a narrator reading Clement Clarke Moore's 1823 poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.
The Night Before Christmas premiered in New York City on December 2, 2006[1] with The Chelsea Symphony and actor Richard Kind.
It has since been narrated by Ana Gasteyer (2007), David Hyde Pierce (2008),[2] Charles Busch (2009),[3][4] Andrea Martin (2010),[5] Rachel Dratch (2011), Mo Rocca (2012),[6][7] Victor Garber (2013),[8] BD Wong (2014), Seth Rudetsky (2015),[9] Caroline Rhea (2016),[10] Judy Gold (2017),[11] Annie Golden (2018),[12] Mario Cantone (2019),[13] John Lithgow (2020, virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic),[14][15] Christian Coulson (2021),[16] Eve Plumb (2022),[17] Bellamy Young (2023),[18] and Will Swenson (actor) (2024).
[19] Moore's poem was selected partly due to the nominal connection between the author's home and the orchestra that would debut the musical work.