Children's Christmas Poem: "Dear Santa ..."

Santa Checking his List ...

Here we are, with three weeks left until Christmas and yet it has been here since Halloween ...

Will Christmas and everything surrounding it be stale for children by the 25th of December?

As I was out grocery shopping the other day, I was hit by the sheer commercialism Christmas has become.

How sad for the children. Can they still believe in Christmas when they've had trees, lights, sales, decorations, and Santas everywhere for two long months? How can they remain excited?  Where has all the magic gone?

It was so much simpler for children years ago, when the Christmas season didn't actually arrive until around December 1.

The excitement built in a steady crescendo:  school vacation, snow and sledding, to the magical Christmas Eve, with the reading of "The Night Before Christmas", hanging stockings, and setting out the traditional cookies and milk for Santa ... oh, and I almost forgot!  A plate of carrots for the reindeer.

I remember being urged at the beginning of December to make my wish list and Mama would send it to Santa at the North Pole. Then as a family, we would begin shopping for gifts.

I remember the whole family would pile in the station wagon to head to the woods so we could cut down our tree -- and everyone helped to decorate it, because there were ONLY a couple of weeks left until Christmas.

There was never time for Christmas to become stale. Heck, we always had just enough time to get everything done ... if we hurried.

I dedicate this poem to children who wonder about the commercialism and who still think of others first ...

Dear Santa ...

by CJ Heck

Dear Santa,
You always bring me many things,
my little sister, too,
things we love to play with,
so many things to do.

I see you in big limos
waving at us in parades.
I see you in the shopping malls
and even in arcades.

I see you on the corners
where you're ringing little bells.
I see you talking on TV
advertising big hotels.

It makes me start to wonder
if you're really, really there,
or are you just too busy now
with all those things to care?

See, I have a best friend, Tommy,
and I'm sending his address,
so this year you won't miss his house,
'cause Tommy, he's the best.

Please, Santa, take some time off
from those other things you do
and this year visit Tommy's house?
He needs some presents, too.


[From the book, "Barking Spiders and Other Such Stuff", by CJ Heck]

“A writer soon learns that easy to read is hard to write.” ~CJ Heck