Twas the night before Christmas.

When all through the house.

Not a creature was stirring.

Not even a mouse.

I thought you know that story, But do you know the story behind the story?

Come on, let's take a trip.

It's funny how people think that history is boring.

But do we even know what's going on inside these pages?

It's still being written, and it's packed with wild stories and unexpected twists.

I'm here to tell you the stories behind the history.

It's complicated, messy, and often times bizarre and strange.

You are about to learn that this is not your average history lesson.

I'm Christine Darrow, so you can call me.

It's a mystery inside our history.

Twas the Night Before Christmas is often regarded as a holiday classic, depicting a magical visit from Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

It was written by American poet and scholar doctor Clement Clarke Moore, who took inspiration from one particular location in northern New York.

Welcome to Constable Hall.

This is the home that inspire Twas the Night Before Christmas, and the way the world celebrates the holidays.

While walkin through this majestic mansion, it isn't hard to let your imagination run wild.

Sitting on 22 acres of land and Lewis County, New York, the mansion was constructed on a portion of the 3.6 million acres of land from Maccombs Purchase and was completed in 1819.

The hall was built by William Constable Jr.

William died from complications due to injuries he had sustained during construction, leaving Mary Eliza McVicar Constable, a widow with five children.

She could have probably said to her father, look, you know, I'm a widow now with five children.

I'm going to move back to New York.

But she didn't.

She stayed here.

I like to think it's because she knew how much the house meant to her husband.

So she decided to stay here and raise her children.

But during that time, Clement Moore, he knew tha she was going to need support.

So he came up here for that.

Those next couple of years over Christmas to to give comfort to her and the family, that it was Constable Hall that inspired the story.

For instance, about he tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

That never made sense to me as a child, because it should be set right with a regular window.

It should be.

It should be sash and then shutters.

But not in this house.

In this house there's 32 sets of interior shutters.

I don't know how I know.

I get to open and close them all the time.

One could easily picture the five constable children hanging their stockings by the chimney with care.

During his visits to the hall.

Moore was often fond of the constable's Dutch caretaker, Peter, who was black and jolly.

That description has inspired so many artists and painters and even cartoonists all over the world.

Artists everywhere have used their own flair on Santa Claus, so even though you picture Santa in a big red suit with a fluffy white beard, there there's artwork, that's varied from all different countries, all different countries put their own spin on Santa, but it is still the Sant that that he described the poem that flowed around the Constable family until it was sent to a local newspaper in Troy, where it would go o to receive tons of recognition.

But while it garnered positive attention, the poem's publication left Doctor Moore unhappy.

He didn't feel like he wa putting his best foot forward.

He didn't consider tha a serious piece of literature, but right away he discovered that people loved the poem.

So I think he realized that he had writte something bigger than himself.

It did take him by surprise, to what ended up being the most widely piece of letter piece of literature in the world.

If you know the Constable, the Constable family is still here, and, family means a lot to them.

And that's really a theme throughout the ages of, Constable Hall and the Constable family, even after 200 years.

The theme was on through th seven generations of Constables.

My father lived here for approximately five years.

They moved here, early 1920s.

Very tragically His father was killed in an accident.

My father was ten years old.

It was a devastating naturally, a devastating experience for the family.

Ownership of the hall was passed to my father when he was approximately 18 years old, and he continued to visit and take care of Constable Hall to the best of his ability.

After returning from World Wa Two, he had to make the decision The upkeep of the hall was more than than he could bear.

Mary's father, John would sell the mansion in 1947, making his generation the last to live in the hall.

As a gift to the Constable Hall Association, Mr.

and Mrs.

Lewis Cornwall purchased and fully restored the home to be loved and cherished forever, and has since been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The most reason its special that Constable Hall is special to me, is the fact that it remained in the family and the family took care of it, for approximately 130 years until it was passed t the Constable Hall Association.

I love to come here.

I come here all times of the day.

It's so calming.

We were tucked away, and it's just amazing that this house remains here, for over 200 years.

What the true connection was and and how important it was and how well known.

The poem was worldwide.

It's just it's amazing.

And to just enjoy the connection and, it's sweet.

This house inspired was part of the inspiration to write the poem because there are so many parts of this house that match the poem.

And the feel and the fact that the relationship between he and Mary Eliza, I mean, they were cousins and they grew up together, New York City but they were also fast friends.

The fact that he came up here for a few years after her husband died to comfort her children, I mean, a picture of that kind of relationship, it's just it's lovely.

And to go along with this beautiful poem, Twas the Night Before Christmas.

I mean, you can just picture him in this room, thinking about that and knowing that he was here to comfort his cousin and children after this devastating loss but still being inspired by this beautiful house and the beautiful grounds.

And also, I think also, you know, the love of family and what that meant to him.

Obviously, because that was not an easy track from either.

If he was coming from New York City or from Troy to come up here.

I mean, you know, back then it wasn't a quick, quick weekend trip.

They literally would be her for weeks because it took a long time to get here.

We believe Clement Moore spent a few Christmases here with Mary, Eliza and the children.

And also we believe that he visited the family before William died as well, which is why we think, when William had died he immediately came here to to comfort his cousin and their children.

For over two centuries, the Constable family has weathered both joy and sorrow.

Their legacy etched into every corner of these walls.

And as the years pass, one begins to wonder.

Is it only memory that lingers here?

Or is the Christmas spirit itself still keeping watch?

I dont perceive that, Constable Hall, has any legend or, ghost.

I just remember one time we did have, some paranormal people, and afterwards I was talking with one of the one of the, speakers, and I asked her, did you feel anything?

She said, I sat on the second step of the stairs, and she said, I felt someone sitting next to me.

And I said, well, that was my father.

So I feel that my father's presence is, is is here.

Quite often when something goes wrong, we think, oh my goodness, how are we going to get through this?

And somehow we persevere.

And so we're doing very well.

We're doing better, we're doing better and better every year.

We're leaving the foothills of the Adirondacks for one of its highest peaks, Whiteface Mountain and the town of Wilmington.

To discover the story behind the story.

Welcome to Santa's Workshop, where Santa spends his summer vacation.

It all began with a baby bear getting lost in the Adirondack Mountains and stumbling into Santa's workshop.

The concept of the park came about in about 1937.

Julian Weiss was traveling from New York City with his little daughter and to come to the Adirondacks year.

He owned a home, and on the way they were driving through all of the little towns because the Thruway wasn't built yet.

And as they went by all of these beautiful decorated homes with the lights and the decorations, it just was so beautiful.

And he began to tell his littl daughter Patti about Baby Bear, who was a character in the children's stories that he made up for his children, and he was telling about how babies ended up lost in the Adirondack woods one night.

And as he journeyed through, h came out into a little clearing and he saw this little village, and it was actually Santa Clauss village, and there were elves and animals and Santa Claus here.

And, it was his Adirondack classic and little Patti was enthralled with this story, and she asked him, can we go there?

And he said, oh, I'm sorry, there are no roads there in the woods.

And then she said, well, you have the plane.

Can we fly there?

He said, well, there's no place to fly the plane into to land the plane.

So, so as she drifted off to sleep, he began to think about this, and it was the seed that was planted.

He thought it would be a really great idea to create a magical place for children where they could come and meet Santa Claus, and he'd see his home and his little village.

And that was the conception of the idea.

Julian Rice then went to, an artist who lived in Upper Jay named Arto Monaco, and Arto, who had been had been a cartoonist had been working in the movies, and had also been, involve in the military building a Swiss style village, a Tyrolean style village for the army in which for the army to train as the soldiers were to go to Germany.

And as a result of that, he already had a conception in his mind of what a little, Woodland Village would look like.

And so you then matter of days he had beautiful lines and water colored all drawn up, for Mr.

Reiss, who came back to see him, and was so impressed with his drawings that he took them to his father in New York City, who was a wealthy textil merchant, and his father agreed to put up the money For Santas Workshop.

I met Arto, as a kid.

My mother used to be one of the waitresses at his restaurant at Land of Make Believe, and the elementary schoo kids used to take all of their, school trips at the end of the year to the Land of Make Believe.

So we would just see him there all the time.

Always involved.

I just always knew him.

As I got older, I worked at the post office in Upper Jay and Arto would come in for his mail.

We would just have a little chat.

He really got involved in his work.

The kids at the Land of Make Believe that that' where I knew him from, mostly.

And, he was the kind of gu that got right involved in it.

He would build the toys, buil the village, create everything.

But he was right in the middle of the park as one of the kids themselves, just guiding them through, all the things there were to do.

And I always remember him just wearing his hat and his bandana around his neck and his, plaid shirts and cowboy boots, and he was just quite a guy.

I do know that he loved children.

He loved his community.

He loved the people.

He loved his art and creativity.

And he put them all together.

And he created the Land of Make Believe, which was a magical place for both parents and children.

It was a safe place that you could, once you get through the gate, let the kids run.

Every parent was watching every child.

It was a just a fun, safe place, for everyone to be, for families to be.

There was something that created and took a lot of pride and joy and care and creating.

Now that I had a better understanding of the park's history, I wanted to meet with the general manager for a tour of Santa's Workshop and experience the magic for myself.

Hey, welcome.

Hi there.

Hi, I'm Steve Thomas, I'm the general manager here at Santa's Workshop, and this is our toy store.

So let me show you inside.

Okay, great.

So this is where the magic happens, where we show kids how the elves make toys and they get to interact with one of the first robot animatronic, whatever you want to call it in the country.

So all they do is they pull, they pull down little lever, and different things operate.

And this is one of the first in all of America that had something like this, this magical recipe of a toy shop, animatronics, a child's imagination and Santa was the perfect potion to enchant none other than Walt Disney.

So tell me, when did Arto Monaco come u with this idea of animatronics?

You know, he was a toy maker first and foremost.

So he had his own company where he made toys.

I think it was more just a kind of a evolution of what he was currently doing.

And he had a very a very, very vivid imagination.

So I think it just came from that you you had some kind of mechanical so he put two and two together here we have it today, you know, and he also had a lot to do with It's a Small World at Disneyland.

So this was kind of the start of the idea Small World is where he really, really blossomed.

So how did Walt Disney utilize Arto Monacos design?

I think it was kind of his very unique artistic style because he had, you know, the characters had like rather sharp noses and chins.

There's a very distinct style.

But for entertainment purposes and amusement parks and theme parks, it was one of those things that kind of made kids like especially happy, you know, because it was something that was a little bit more imaginative than something a real life kind of.

Yeah.

So that's where, you know, he ut specific style to make, you know, a lot of things have been Disne and other things as well, too.

Being in Santa's workshop got me thinking about my own artistic potential.

So like an elf, I tried my hand at making some toys.

All right, since today we'r going to make you a Junior elf.

We're going to make a truck today.

So here is your truck and you have your wheels.

So what you'll d is put your spot in the wheels and hammer it into the holes gently and carefully.

There you go.

High five.

Whoa!

As we toured Santa's workshop at the North Pole, we made a stop at the post office, which the U.S.

Postal Service awarded with rural postal station status.

Did you know that when you write a letter to the North Pole that it comes here?

Then it was time to visit the reindeer.

Next, I wanted to go on some rides and check out the store where everyone gets a magic wand.

there's even a blacksmith shop, a chapel.

And don't forget Santa's house.

And then there's my favorite, the candy shop.

When the park first opened in 1949, over 200 people visited.

However, Labor Day weekend of 1951 saw ove 14,000 visitors in a single day.

But by the 1970s it had become evident that the times were changing.

The heyday of Santa's workshop was between the 1950s and the 1970s.

Thousands and thousand and thousands of families came, and they continued to come, so that in this day and age, three generations of people will come here to visit the children who came when was.

There will be grandparent who will bring their children.

You now have children.

And so we often see families of three generations visiting the park today.

The ambitious Operation Toy Lift program was a symbol of Santa's workshop in the 1950s.

Flying toys to orphanages across the continent.

Its quiet conclusion however, marked a turning point prompted by the societal shift to foster care and the dawn of a new, more aggressive competitor.

The modern theme park.

As daredevil rides and corporate parks began to capture the imagination of a new generation.

Santa's workshop was forced to pivot.

It could no longer compete on scale or novelty, so it chose to compete on memory.

It clung to its unique handcrafted charm and the potent nostalgia for simpler times, a strategy that has allowed it to outlive nearly all of its roadside contemporaries.

I believe in Santa Claus.

I believe in the magic of Christmas, and I believe there's stil hope for a property like this, because this really is, the summer home of Santa Claus and the baby Jesus.

And I don't know, of a small town anywhere in the world that can boast such a thing.

So it hurts me.

Kind of hurts me when I see Santas workshop, which was the pillar of the economic well-being of this community.

Fade away a little bit, and it's coming back.

And the owner, Doug Waterbury who's a friend, still believes he's hanging in there.

And I thin I think it's going to be okay.

But there's so few places on the planet that has the magic that this park has.

And I liken it to a scene in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy and her pals enter the Land of Oz, and the movie goes from black and white to Technicolor.

And I think that's what happens to guests.

I think technology led to the decline of the park.

In the 1970s, theme parks began to crop up all over the nation that offered roller coasters and upside down woopsy- rides and all kinds of, with all kinds, their, bells and whistles.

And this place became they wanted to keep Santas workshop as nostalgic as they could.

And so as time went on, people began to, attend these other theme parks that had more pizzazz than Santa's workshop.

However, the people that came here as children still embraced the nostalgia of that place.

It has become a plac that never changes in a sense.

Original buildings are all here.

The colors are all here, the reindeer are still here, and it brings people back a step in time.

It's a very sentimental place for people that visited here as children.

Well, I use the word magic a lot.

And, you know, magic is a, is an emotio that we've lost over the years.

And magic survives this.

This is real magic.

All you have to do is look around and see the structures here and the cabins and the, I mean, come on, in the eyes of a five year old.

And again, this isn't for a 50 year old who doesn't believe anymore, but a three year old.

Five.

This is the real deal.

And, I keep using the word magic because this is a property that is filled with magic and the magic of Christmas.

And we all went through that wonderful period in our lives where the build up to Christmas Day was a memory that I have forever.

And parents now return here, and i really hasn't changed that much.

And that's good because it doesn't need to change.

This is the way it was 70 years ago.

75 years ago, or whatever it was It's it's still a wonderful experience for them, especially when they're bringing thei grandchildren or their children because they're reliving it to.

So Steve, I think it's so coo that both Clement Clarke Moore and Julian Rice inspired so much just by the stories that they told their children.

It's amazing how a story to their children have evolved into this, and in a lot of ways, the modern day theme park and amusement park across all across the country, it's amazing.

It just started right here.

Yeah.

I mean, Walt Disney was inspired so much by what you all had going on here that that's really how he made up his parks.

Yeah.

And, you know, one of the other really instrumental parks in his thinking was, Frontier Land that was also here, the Land of Make Believe, which was literally like ten miles from here.

And, it's a combination of this, these three parks that were up in northern New York i the middle of the Adirondacks, that kind of started a whole, whole movement.

So I guess we really can't underestimate the power of fathers just really tryin to get their kids to go to bed.

Absolutely.

I know that for a fact.

Until next time, I'm your host, Christine Darrow.

But you can call me Christine, the History Queen.