CHRISTMAS IN A BOX

As my Advent Blog draws to a close each year I try to find some little gift to share on Christmas day. This year, however, I was getting a bit concerned because I couldn’t come up with anything. Then, on the 23^rd, I opened up an email from my brother in Edmonton, who is the Capilano Mall Santa and, in my opinion, the best Santa south of the Arctic Circle. There I found a poem and picture that have now become my Christmas gift for 2011.

Christmas has a way of stirring up visions from our past. The memories may be positive or negative, and are often a bitter/sweet, melancholy mix. Steve’s poem says it all. He may stir up memories for you as he did for me. Hope he does.

Plastic Santa

by Steve Colborne

With trimming on the Christmas tree and candles burning bright,

a pine bough wreath upon the door, yet something wasn't right.

I wasn't sure what I had missed, it seemed a vital part

cause nothing that I'd done, so far, put Christmas in my heart.

I'd been through all the motions that I went through every year

and why the thrill eluded me this year just wasn't clear.

So I put the thought behind me and continued with my task

of sifting through the storage room and adding to the trash.

When I came upon a dusty box marked `CHRISTMAS' on the side.

I brushed it off and looked to see what treasures it might hide.

There beneath a news print shroud a vision from my past.

A flood of childhood memories came furious and fast.

My eyes welled up, my vision blurred, I paused to catch my breath.

The feelings that came over me I'll carry to my death.

It's just a plastic Santa and it's just his face at that.

With beard and hair of faded white, dull red his cheeks and hat.

And tiny lights that, when plugged in, alight his smiling face.

At Christmas in my childhood years he always had his place.

His eyes that once did sparkle so have faded with the years.

His paint has dulled, worn bare in spots, a crack

runs through his beard.

And thus he hangs upon my door to greet our friends and kin,

but most of them would never know, until they venture in,

and greeted there with open arms and maybe share a tear

how much that plastic Santa has affected me this year.

Merry Christmas, God bless, and thanks for sharing the Advent Season this year.