What’s that noise?
Oh! – bells, that means it’s Christmas.
Hell!
Let it pass quickly – that’s my prayer.
The end of the year is draped in tawdry tinsel –
The Spirit of Christmas past.
But it was never good.
The presents were never what was wanted,
The right people never there,
Hackneyed carols: Silent Night? Always too noisy!
Sherry, mince pies and stomach ache.
The tedium of aged relatives nodding off
(and soon that will be me!)
Enforced Monopoly with inevitable protracted defeat.
Food and more food
And films already worn out in the memory.
We are trapped in this tarnished tradition.

One Christmas night we jumped in virgin snow
After the midnight service.
That stays in my mind as a good one.

This year I shall buy 20 Ready Meals
And a bumper bottle of Bristol Cream
And sleep through till Boxing Day.