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.