The little girl, on Christmas Eve, 
Gazed out her window pane
To see the stars shine back at her...
She stared back at them in vain.

She wondered where the spirit went
Of which everyone had spoken.
Sure wasn’t here at her house;
Well, maybe just a token.

This season was supposed to be
So magical and all……
Everyone so good and kind,
Good wishes…..deck the halls……

Loving, caring, hugging…..
Happiness abound…..?
But she sure didn’t see it
When she looked around.

Her parents? They were arguing
About the cost of gifts;
The lights were tangled horribly
Producing further rifts.

Some ornaments were damaged;
And her favorite treetop angel
Had another broken wing
(It had fallen off the table).

Her brother had been whining
For what seemed like forty years.
Her sister’s boyfriend left her--
So that meant tons of tear.

The lights were hanging crooked,
 And the tinsel on the tree
Had been eaten by the kitten
Who got sick last night at three.

Mom’s cookies came out burnt again,
The piano still not tuned,
So if they ever got to sing
The carols would be ruined.

And then the stars gave way to sleet,
She watched, then gave a sigh,
The snow and ice would make roads slick,
Which meant, that she was stuck inside. 

It was supposed to be a quiet snow
And now this icky storm;
Inside the house, so full of stress
Her emotions tossed and torn.

She closed her eyes and tried to see
Four thousand miles afar;
Almost two thousand years ago
Time measured by a star.

A star that shone so brightly
So many years ago
a star that told the wise men
And shepherds where to go.

She wondered if they had to treck
In deep and icy snow.
Was the baby Jesus whining
How did Mary tell him "no"?

Just how stinky was the manger scene
So clean and neat in stores?
Did the angels go on singing
Through the dusty desert storms?

Was everything so perfect
Like the Christmas cards depict?
Or was it more like her house
Where things needed to be fixed….

Did the donkey keep them up all night
Hee-hawing all night long?
The sheep, though warm and toasty
Must have smelled pretty strong.

Hay is soft for cows and such,
But when using it to sleep.
It would be awfully itchy
All piled there in heaps….

Did Mary try to straighten
Up the manger when she saw
That the shepherds were to visit
Or was it left the way it was?

And when Jesus got his presents
Of gold, frankincense and myrrh,
Did he thank them ever nicely,
Or ask what-the-heck they were?

So smelly, cold and itchy,
He still chose to come to earth.
Things didn’t have to be perfect
To have a perfect birth.

If Jesus had to have a night
Where things were in perfect place
There never would have been a birth
No saviour for the human race.

Maybe it was her fault 
For expecting Christmas cheer
To arrive and just be present 
Without helping it appear.

Even with the arguing
And exasperating sighs,
Maybe that’s what forms a family
Working out those bonds and ties.

If God was patient with all mankind
The least that she could do
Was enjoy the family that she had
Even with this Christmas flu.

Her heart was much more peaceful now
She knew things could go wrong
The lights could be all wired weird
The off-key pitches of their songs….

So what if the cookies came out burnt
And gingermen lost their toes,
And ornaments were broken
And the snowman lost his nose.

She crept downstairs and surveyed
The confusing scope of things.
And smiled at the angel,
Someone had fixed its wings.

The lights were finally blinking
Out-of-sinc , the way they should.  
And except  for chewed-up tinsel
The tree looked pretty good.

Her brother came up whining still
But gave her a big hug.
She hugged him back and smiled when
She saw the bear he lugged.

It was the bear she gave him
Last year, on Christmas Eve.
He never let it leave his side
One-eyed, and now one-sleeved.

So she hung the popcorn, not so straight
And played with her dopey brother.
Christmas came but once a year,
Time to spend it with each other.

And late that night, when lights were out
She glanced at the angel, blinking,
She shook her head and looked again
And saw the angel winking.



by Deb Walker
( Merry Christmas ! )
Another Christmas Poem 

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