Empty ribbon boxes & Trampolining Foxes

Festive colour spreads the streets,

Towns and cities that never sleep,

Windows filled with lights and boxes

Advertised by trampolining foxes-

Adverts compete for the best story of joy,

A family song,

A red-cheeked boy

All wrapped up holding a gadget or gift,

When after Xmas we are encouraged to sift

Through sales

And rails

And Boxing Day’s best

When the real saving is a day of rest.

The real present, a smile or a laugh

Delivered by your loved one

Or that favourite aunt

Who every year, may fall asleep

And be the one who sits and weeps

At Comedy re-runs of Only Fools

And silently snuffles on the corner stool

As her mince pie slips, down her lap

During that little pre evening nap.

 

Charades, monopoly, cheese boards, port

The table cleared as we all resort

To a comfortable position –

A Christmas film?

A Soap’s big day storyline,

Ending in doom.

Our temptation to round off with a faint whiff of misery

As fictional characters

Go through storylines of bigomy

When really it would be nice to see

Some humour of a family

Who hasn’t been thwarted by the soap-world baddy

And instead is celebrated for being a hard working daddy.

That’s the story we want to share,

A real life moment of the good that is there,

For whilst we get gripped as a nation by pretend,

There is a real danger that may not end in a big finale or ratings snub,

A magazine front page and

“Get out of my pub!”

There’s a real family,

Without any tree

Sitting in shelter,

About to lose their mammy,

There is a real child who has to learn the lesson

That Christmas for them is not about presents.

It’s just another day

To come together and hope

that someone is coming

And Santa’s no joke –

That there is some magic,

A power of good

That once a year flies to every neighborhood

Gifting more than manufactured toys,

It’s that little bit of sparkle we hear about called Joy.

We sing it in hymns,

We write it in cards,

We see it lit up and it doesn’t feel hard

To say it,

To feel it

Or accept it is real,

So try and send it

So others can steal

A moment of happy stuff

A glimpse or a taste

Of the real point of Christmas

And our human race –

To Give

And Receive

With no expectation,

Just because we are working as one global nation

That shouldn’t be wrapped up in one big day

Or taking 0% finance to make it okay,

Because there’s so many of us

And so more with less,

Lining cold streets

In un-lit depths of all our communities,

So, look down and stop,

At the pair of shoes poking out a cardboard box,

Or the young woman holding a cup,

It wasn’t her fault,

She may not have messed up,

She is a person,

Who came into this world –

Just like we all did, she was a girl –

She could be your daughter, your sister, your friend,

She could be anywhere,

Because the world doesn’t end…

It keeps going round,

It’s one big connection,

It’s just up to us as to what we direction,

We follow and take

What magic we make,

So celebrate Christmas kindness,

Like we do at Mellon Educate.