A Visit from St. Nicholas, more commonly known as The Night Before Christmas, contains some of the most well-known verses ever written by an American (Clement Clarke Moore). The poem is largely responsible for modern conceptions of Santa Claus and had a massive effect on the history of Christmas gift-giving. We’re still reading it 200 years after its initial publication, and is it any wonder why?
‘Twas the night before Christmas, but we work in IT.
In the SOC and the NOC, we stay vigilant at NTG.
The servers hum along in their racks with care,
With hopes that no outages or surges do flare.
The laptops were nestled all snug in their docks,
With switches and firewalls stored safe behind locks.
The engineers were dreaming of a long winter’s nap,
Maybe a short one, after we configure this WAP.
We expect the unexpected, so we’re used to some clatter.
Still, it was loud, so I went to see what was the matter.
Away to the server room, I flew like a flash,
Punched in the keycode, ten buttons to mash.
In the glow of the power lights, the room was quite dim.
Still, I saw a man standing there and thought “could it be him?”
“Hey, wait a sec, you’re not Santa!”
The new guy just shrugged and sipped on his Fanta.
He bore some resemblance – heavyset, had a beard.
Said, “Sorry about the mess, it’s worse than I feared.”
He was called in that night to swap out some drives,
In the process – network failure. I broke out in hives.
And then from above, I heard on the roof
Something landing, and footsteps, and maybe a hoof.
“Are we expecting someone else?” I asked the new guy.
He shrugged again, said “just you and I.”
But then, from the ceiling descended a cable.
St. IT-Claus rappelled down with grace to a table.
We stood there in shock as he unpacked his sack.
Then St. IT-Claus went to work in the rack.
He switched out an UPS and plugged in some wires,
The back of his coat bore the phrase “putting out fires.”
St. IT-Claus worked quickly and he whistled a tune,
He turned and said with a wink, “I’ll be finished here soon.”
Sure enough he was done after minutes had passed.
The new guy exclaimed, “wow that was fast!”
St. IT-Claus just chuckled, told us all was fine.
“No trouble at all, your network’s back online.”
Then he placed his finger on the side of his nose,
And giving a nod up the cable he rose.
“Am I dreaming?” I asked. The new guy said no.
“I think that just happened. But hey, we’re good to go!”
As St. IT-Claus’s sleigh rose up into the night,
I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight –
“Merry Christmas to all, Happy Holidays, too!”
“If your network goes down, you know what to do!”
