‘Twas a month before Christmas, when all through our place
There were no decorations, not even a trace.
The stores in the town were a tinselly mess
Of garlands and lights and ho-ho-ho-ness;

And stocking stuffers nestled all snug on their racks
For something ninety-five each, plus tax.
And we in our work clothes resumed our fixation
On building a deck and home renovations.

And we knew as we worked that the homes of our friends
Were beginning to sparkle with holiday gems.
Their window with LED lights were aglow
In their doorways hung clusters of bold mistletoe.

Their homes smelled of cranberry, spice, and scotch pine
While the fragrance of paint and paint thinner graced mine.
Away to the rec room we flew like two fools
We stowed all the paint, we packed up the tools.

We vacuumed the sawdust, me and my spouse,
Till instead of a workshop, it looked like a house
The refurbished dining room light fixture’s glow
Gave a lustre of midday to the laminate below.

Then off to the storage shed out back I trekked
And exhumed all the boxes marked “Christmas dec.”
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But bins full of tinsel and holiday cheer.

What sorting, what cleaning, what awing and oohing.
What fond reminiscing, what hot gun gluing.
The fragrance of spruce soon replaced the Pine-sol
As I pulled out the cookbook, the apron and all;

More rapid than Martha I baked and I iced
And we put up the garland and then, in a trice,
We invited our friends to help trim the tree
To kick off our plunge into merriment-ry.

As our friends and relations join us this year
We will all raise a glass of good Christmas cheer
And toast to the season, it goes by so fast;
Toast to the memory of Christmases past.

And wish that the goodwill could cancel the strife
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good life.

#136