Yuletide

Painting by Norman Rockwell

Yuletide

Who has not moaned about Christmas
being a bore, a chore, an expensive waste of time,
a Kitschfest, an occasion for old family rows
being warmed up once again,
for uncle Geronimo getting so sozzled
that he falls off the chair,
for auntie Geronomina bursting into tears
at the injustice of it all,
at TV programmes being nothing
but ancient repeats warmed up for the -nth year,
at the kids breaking their expensive toys
within hours of getting them,
and everybody feeling sick because
they've been eating and drinking for most of the day.

Christmas doesn't have to be like that.

It doesn't have to be
the corrupt, plasticised, saccharine, artificial creation
that has been allowed to smother
the real Christmas
to which we all reach in our imaginations.

The wonderful Christmas we used to know.

Friko

Written as rebuttal to Shaw's tirade over on her site Friko's Musings
Line breaks by Glenn Buttkus