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Elizabeth also knew that her father had written the poem because her brother Sidney had found the original poem manuscript after Henry's death. An earlier "reference" to the poem exists in a letter from Elizabeth's nephew, Henry Livingston Thomas, the son of Elizabeth's sister Jane. In a Dec 1851 letter to Abraham Lansing, 16 year old Henry writes: As I look from my window just now the sky looks rather lowering, as if the white mases of snow were preparing themselves for a sally through their cloudy barriers. I trust they will act in accordance with present appearances, at least in order to allow an easy passage to Santa Claus with his "eight tiny reindeer," for my sympathy is enlisted on the side of such juveniles as those whom his visits gladden.