Roller Coaster Christmas
by cricketjeff on November 21, 2009. © Jeff Green, All rights reserved
There’s a frost that’s painted pictures on the bedroom window pane,
There’s a blackbird finding titbits in the brickwork round the drain.
When the dawn arrived this morning there was something in the air
With a freezing Christmas daybreak there is beauty everywhere.
All the fairy lights and tinsel, all the shiny Christmas bells,
Then the agonies of choosing and last minute shopper’s hells.
Too much turkey, too much stuffing, too much wine and too much beer.
Why do we all sit and suffer in the same ways every year?
Little children waking early finding stockings by the bed;
While their Dads pretend they’re sleeping, unconvincing sleepy-head.
Pretty daughter is embarrassed, holding earrings from a boy.
Mother’s radio plays carols and Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”.
Auntie Maggie sent a jumper that is never going to fit,
And that album by Cliff Richard isn’t going to be a hit.
Now Dad’s busy in the kitchen putting sprouts into the pan,
While he’s silently complaining he got socks AGAIN from Nan.
There is stuffing, Yorkshire pudding, “who wants leg and who wants breast?”
There are peas, green beans and carrots, Brussels sprouts and all the rest.
Then a flaming Christmas pudding lots of brandy, custard, cream,
With meringues for all the children it’s a feast fit for a dream.
Will they ever stop that shouting? Have I got the strength to stand?
Surely games so loud and graphic should be Bowdlerised or banned.
Some want tea and some want coffee, let’s ignore the children’s scene
But we have sit down quiet there’s a film after “The Queen”.
Can life get more satisfying than the whinge of too much food?
And a cup of tea or coffee while the Christmas cake is chewed.
Everybody’s either sleepy or wrapped up inside a book,
Even children are quite quiet, and I’m too well fed to look.
On this best and worst occasion, on this busiest of days,
There are thoughts that don’t bear thinking and some dreams that will amaze.
Though not everywhere is peaceful, half the World still isn’t free,
There is nothing quite like Christmas and it seems alright to me.
English