A Poem for Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve has come. Tonight is the new moon; if you’re reading Mary Oliver’s Twelve Moons as a lunar calendar with me this year, tonight’s poem is called, appropriately enough, Christmas Poem.

Zeiger family homestead Christmas

Zeiger family homestead Christmas decorations (Photo: Mark Zeiger).

I laughed when I read this one, because I had misunderstood Cold Moon—Hannah’s Children earlier this month. This poem is about the Christmas Eve legend I originally thought that poem referred to.

I assume that since I read Twelve Moons when I first got it, I must have remembered a poem on this topic without realizing it, and assigned that meaning to the wrong poem.

And, as I inferred in discussing that other poem, children do, in fact, test the Christmas Eve legend! At least, Mary Oliver did. And what a lovely story it becomes—not one of disillusionment or betrayal, but of comfort, and, in some small measure, perhaps—joy.

And that, kind reader, is what I wish for you and yours tonight on Christmas Eve, tomorrow on Christmas day, and always: Comfort and Joy.

Merry Christmas!

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2 Responses to A Poem for Christmas Eve

  1. Astrid says:

    Wish you and your family wonderful days.

  2. Mark Zeiger says:

    Thank you, Astrid, our best to you as well!

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