"Christmas Rappin'", by Kurtis Blow (1979), begins with the opening of Clement Moore's 1823 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas", but then interrupts and negates it: "Don't you give me all that jive about things you wrote before I's alive / 'Cause this ain't 1823 -- ain't even 1970." Anything older is dismissed in favor of this new song in a new style, but a Christmas song cannot escape that tradition and ends as Moore's poem does: "The dude in red's back at the Pole / Up north where everything is cold / But if he were right here tonight / He'd say, Merry Christmas and to all a good night." (Andrew Shields, #111words, 21 April)