On the first day of December, little Timmy Kringle and his parents were reading a bedtime story on a cold, snowy night.

Timmy chose to read a book called The Night Before Christmas. He was so excited about the book that he couldn't fall asleep!

Mom! I love this book but sometimes it's hard to understand because the sentences are SO LONG!

Well, Timmy, let us tell you about the many clauses of Christmas.

"'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there."

Both of the red sections are independent clauses since they can stand on their own and still make sense.

Just think of it as two little sentences pushed together!

"The children were nestled all snug in their beds while visions of sugarplums danced in their heads."

In this case the red part can stand on its own but the green part doesn't make sense without the red part.

So we need to use a comma to join them! This green part is a dependent clause because it depends on the red part for meaning.