Elsie's Christmas (Back in '32)



A note about the poem: Elsie is my mother. She loved Christmas Trees; decorating them. She is today 81-years old (written four years ago). She doesn’t decorate them any more, but Christmas time, the buying of gifts, the Cards and all seem always to be the best of the year for her; and of course Christ’s birth. I wrote this poem in December, l982, and it was published on December 16, l982. Now, almost 20-years later, I re-discover it, and share her memories with you. I remember talking to her just prior to creating the poem. I asked her what came to mind. And when I gave it to her, she care for well, keeping a copy in her bedroom drawer.

Part I

It was back in ‘32
When a paper-doll would do--
Icicles, wooden shoes.

And just about Christmas


Time--I remember--
I’d be huddled
With a brother, sister


Friend…
On a street corner
Watching fire-engines,
Street--cars, --Racing


Through town--
On cobblestone streets,
Where children sang songs.

And not far away


Was an orphanage
--I recall--
St. Joseph’s (in St. Paul):
I spent some time there


After Ma died;
But it never got me down--
Remembering how she loved


Christmas year-round.

O! how I love Christmas time--
With all its beauty and rimes;

With the horse drawn sleighs
And old street lamps,
The Salvation Army
Ringing their chants.

And each Christmas


I’d walk with dad
To the market place--
Hauling a Christmas tree


Home that same day;
Dressing it with tinsel,
Bulbs of all kinds.
Listening to the radio,


Playing Christmas chimes.

Part II Elsie’s Christmas [l982]

It’s now ‘82
Times have changed;
More Santa’s
Are doing their thing.

Artificial Christmas trees
Year round Christmas socks;
More children on skies,
Snowmobiles in the parks;
More toys, TV’s--


Parking lots;
Christmas cards that seem


To talk.

Festivals of merriment,
Ice-fishing on lake


McCarran’s;
Ice Castles, Parades --


Not quite the same,
Not --


Quite like ‘32


But it’ll do.

But the church bells


Haven’t changed;
The white snow-flakes


Still remain; and
The North Wind -- still howls


With a whispering chant.

O! how I love Christmas time --
With all its beauty and rimes;
Like back in ‘32
When a paper-doll would do.

Part III

Some things will never change
Like back in ‘32 -- we all knew:

In a stall in Bethlehem,
In a land called Judea


2000-years ago--
A baby child was born, called,
Jesus Christ our Savior.

Word count: # 989/re-edited 2001

Added new version: Part IV

Elsie’s Christmas--2001

O! the fun has never stopped even at 81


I watched her as she watched me
Open my gifts a few days ago, as if


She was but ten

Still the love for Christmas lays


Deep within her heart
Like back in ‘32,


When a paper doll would do.

And although she can’t reach or walk


Like she use to way back then
She still can wrap them gifts

And so this is my story to you,
A Christmas at 81, for my mother,
the whole


Year through…