Cat's eyes search for someone near the tree. Ten below, twenty with the wind— the same cold my father knew, standing watch on another Christmas. Power's out. We huddle close. The departed huddle too— shoulder to shoulder with the living, warming themselves at our fireplace. Candles burn: cinnamon, spruce, mom's bayberry. An old sock hangs from the mantle, waiting for can...

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Sitting, standing, fleeing

trembling to the ceiling

Frustration aching through

When another year floats up astew

 

Soddened, Scrooged and scathing

A year of merciless disembowling

Taut in all the wrong places

Left ever thin as black mudied laces

 

Criticism can't be caught when it's so fericuously fraught

Malplaced friendly fire leaving cantankerous colleagues in t...

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This

Time of

The year I 

Attempt to try

To end the year with

Each of my friends smiling 

So I pick out their gifts and 

Try write them cards but the printer

Broke once again, so I’ll send emails

But I don’t know what to get them so I 

Give gifts in mid January but my friends, they

Don’t seem to mind, so we end the year with smiles

And hugs and promises it will w...

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I’ve

Always

Felt as if

Christmas time will

Feel so strange, when I

Work the day, try find a

Way to celebrate alone 

Then overheat, see family

End up walking half an hour home

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Sweet Poinsettia,
how your leaves
beckon us
towards Christmas cheer!
Your cream or crimson colors
create full seasonal spirit.

We carolers sing beside you
as you listen
with proud patience.
Christmas lights sparkle
as they compliment your luster.

Bloom, Poinsettia,
and blossom
as Christmas Time
adores you.

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Oh, Christmas joy, where did you go?

I lost that feeling long ago!

Those magical nights of rosy glows

Where Jack frost nibbled at ya toes

 

The wide-eyed wonder, of wondrous things

Locked in a box where no bell rings 

I wonder where, the wonder went

To sing away my heart's lament 

 

I smile In dreams 

Of Christmas past.

That rosy glow we thought

would last. 

...

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The tree is smaller this year: 

those in pots on the patio  

too heavy to drag inside.   

You with your knee and shoulder, 

me recovering after the hernia.  

 

Yet we’ll have ten round the table 

this Christmas, all being well, 

including three bright-eyed grandchildren 

plus one neurotic greyhound 

spooked by the beeping hob and oven.  

 

The weather is bleak o...

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I'm dreaming of a Wet Christmas

Just like the one we had last year

Where the tree tops drip

And children slip

To see grazed knees upon the ground

 

I'm seeing a wet Christmas

With every sunlit morning rise

Where the wind is howling

And shoppers are scowling

To find that next Black Friday deal

 

I'm feeling lots of eyesight appointments

With all the screen tim...

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Help!

Santa’s

Brand new wheels

Have been held up

In gigantic drifts;

He skimped on the snow chains.

Back to the reindeer next time.

This Christmas risks cancellation,

As glum kids stare at empty chimneys.

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Stars

from the

Christmas box

dusty corners

hidden in the loft

each bauble has a memory

every tinsel frond a friend

celebrations and auld lang syne

pause to think of future and the past

 

Adam Smith

December 2025

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One

Star bright

Lantern-glow

Carols drifting

Candy cane dancing

Evergreen branches sway

Joy gathers around tables

Mistletoe brought home from forest

Year-end turning, warmth clear through the frost

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Christmas music - it's now time to hear,
As we all celebrate this time of year.
It makes us happy and merry and jolly,
As it's time to be silly and full of folly.

It takes us into the festive mood,
Before all the parties and the food.
We delight in the wonderful atmosphere,
For it shows that Christmas is finally here.

Some songs are slow while some are fast,
It's just so great that we...

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Bodies are burning their oil lamps brightly

from the windows overlooking the church  

their silhouettes shape-shift on the bedroom walls

as they move from room to room,

neither stand still long enough for you 

to grasp who or what they are,

televisions flicker in accord

as if planned in some way, it’s strangely romantic

as if part of a passion play – and I am the only one h...

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