‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house,
Unease it was stirring in me and my spouse;
The stockings misplaced, the chimney was bare,
We knew that we had them just couldn’t place where;
The children were jumping with joy on the beds,
With visions of Lego built up in their heads;
All dressed in our onesies, (all festive with holly),
We searched the whole house and tried to stay jolly,
When out of the window we heard such a clatter,
We opened it up to see what was the matter.
The moon shone brightly but no sign of snow,
It still looked delightful though in fairy lights glow.
But what made our eyes open really quite wide,
Was a beautiful sleigh with a person inside.
They gave us a smile then patted the seat,
We snuck in beside them, excited to meet,
Then others they called to join us as well,
Who welcomed the break just like us we could tell,
“Now, everyone ready, hold on very tight
We’re going to fly up and into the night.”
We clung on so tightly, excitement it grew,
Whilst high in the sky we soared and we flew,
We looked at each other then down far below,
Then started to laugh and forget all our woe.
We saw how so wondrous our lives really are,
When observing them completely freshfrom afar,
And then, in a twinkling, I realised right there,
It wasn’t the stockings causing despair,
Nor lack of good presents or money or food,
But my very own thoughts in control of my mood,
As up there the worries just melted away,
Despite nothing changing from early today.
I turned to my spouse who also seemed jolly,
Still in his onesie all covered in holly,
Talking to others sat there in the sleigh,
We found that they felt the very same way;
Their eyes—how they twinkled! They now seemed so merry!
Their cheeks red from joy, no longer from sherry .
We sat there so happy, we sat there so free,
No longer trapped in a world full of ‘me’.
We started to plan we forgot all our woe,
That seemed to be real when we were below,
We wished that the children could share in our joy,
A memory worth so much more than a toy;
We could no longer wait to give them a hug,
So we asked that our host take us down from above,
A wink of their eye and a twist of their head,
To home far below the sleigh it now sped.
We spoke not a word, perspectives now changed,
We’d celebrate Christmas just like we’d arranged,
But without the quarrelling,worry and stress,
Who cares if the food’s burnt, the house is a mess?
We sprang from the sleigh, with a whoop and a whistle,
No longer prickly like thorns of a thistle,
We knew now that love was the one thing that mattered,
And down from the sleigh we all quickly clattered.
Excited, full of energy,cheer and delight,
“Happy Christmas!“ we shouted “And to all a good night!
“And try not to worry, don’t stay in your head,
“Live for the moment, put love first instead.” ‘
