For Andrea

What Christmas means to me

For Andrea

You know me and my attitude to Christmas
It’s not the day I dislike
It’s the disruption of preparation
The buying, the decking (of halls of course)
The singing, the shouting,
The pine needles or broken plastic branches,
The cooking, the cleaning,
The relatives and arguments
It’s overdone and overblown
Irredeemable even by chocolate
And turkey and gifts.

It’s for the kids you say
But I’m a kid no more
And our kids have long moved away
Truth being it’s the adults who pretend
And we don’t need reminding
Of why we have Christmas.

It should be like my love for you
An every day thing,
A constant presence that now and then
Overwhelms and asserts
Its importance
So that life is suddenly in perspective
Every day.

I dislike Christmas so much
That it should be Christmas
And Jesus every day.

27 lines
Dedicated to my wife
Free verse
Christmas in July Contest
“Write a poem dedicated to a friend or loved one
about what the season and their relationship mean to you.”