It doesn’t really matter if it got a little cold just before Christmas. We now have the perfect excuse to cuddle up with family and friends in front of the fire, to frolic in the fresh air and snow, to get spoiled and pampered, to eat too much, and to get all the very best out of this holiday season. For these last few days before that very special day I thought that I would put together a potpourri of poems and stories to salute and celebrate the traditional and glorious occasion, and to get us all ready for the New Year ahead.
Christmas is a time for love and fun
Christmas is a time for love and fun,
A time to reshape souls and roots and skies,
A time to give your heart to everyone
Freely, like a rich and lavish sun,
Like a burning star to those whose lonely sighs
Show need of such a time for love and fun.
For children first, whose pain is never done,
Whose bright flame of anguish never dies,
It’s time to give your heart to everyone.
That not one angel fall, to hatred won
For lack of ears to listen to her cries,
Or arms to carry him towards love and fun,
Or friends to care what happens on the run
To adult life, where joy or sadness lies.
Its time to give your heart to everyone,
For God loves all, and turns His back on none,
Good or twisted, ignorant or wise.
Christmas is a time for love and fun,
A time to give your heart to everyone!
A Christmas greeting to an old friend
By Ponoka poet D.A. Morrow (1948).
“Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot”
Should we no longer care
To hear from those we call “Old friends”
To know just how they fare?
Ah no! At least at Christmas time
We should a message send,
Although ‘twere but a little card,
To greet each old-time friend.
I’ve passed my own three score and ten
A full three years ago,
And as the years slip slowly by
Old friendships dearer grow.
Each year the list grows smaller yet,
Each year old Father Time
Doth take a heavy toll of those
Who were your friends and mine.
And so in memory’s name, my dear,
Come place your hand in mine,
And you and I will drink a toast
To “The days of Auld Lang Syne.”
I Love Christmas!
I love Christmas when it comes around,
The smells and the tastes, the sights and the sounds.
I love the Christmassy cinnamon smells,
The Carol singers and the chiming church bells.
I love to see the advent candle burning,
The excited faces of all the children yearning.
I love the gifts done up with ribbons and bows,
And the red-faced Santa’s calling their ho-ho-hoes!
I love the merry songs about the season of Yule,
And the handmade delights brought home from school.
I love trimming the tree with festive things,
Like candy canes and popcorn strings.
I love the twinkling of the Christmas lights,
And the garlands hanging all colourful and bright.
But the thing that makes the season for me,
Is kissing my love beside the Christmas tree.
We all need a tree
He hired a plumber to help him restore an old farmhouse, and after he had just finished a rough first day on the job: a flat tire made him lose an hour or work, his electric drill quit, and his ancient one ton truck refused to start. While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence.
On arriving, he invited me in to meet his family. As they walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. Afterward he walked me to the car, and as they passed the tree his curiosity got the best of him and he asked the plumber about what he had seen him do earlier.
“Oh, that’s my trouble tree,” he replied, “I know I can’t help having troubles on the job, but one thing’s for sure, those troubles don’t belong in the house with my wife and the children; so I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home and ask God to take care of them. Then in the morning I pick them up again.” “Funny thing is,” he smiled, “when I come out in the morning to pick ‘em up, there aren’t nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.”
Bethlehem
A little child,
A shining star.
A stable rude,
The door ajar.
Yet in that place,
So crude, forlorn,
The Hope of all the world was born.
A Reindeer’s Christmas story
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, the male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually in late November and mid-December. Every historical rendition depicting Santa’s reindeer, every single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to be a girl. We should have known…. ONLY women would be able to drag a fat man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost! For those of you who will be having the usual riddles and the odd wager over the holidays about the names of Santa’s reindeer, here they are: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and of course Rudolph, the most famous of them all.
*Christmas gifts need to come from the bottom of our hearts, with their value meaning very little…. only the joy of giving them to others. Long after the celebration of Christmas our hearts should remain filled with love in a caring and sharing year round pledge to cherished family and friends, community, and exciting new challenges and adventures.