Christmas Trails… Or Trials ( A slight Re-write)

When I was a child
Christmas would tip toe gently in.
Its journey beginning
with Advent in Sunday school,
the first week of December.

From then on
anticipation built
with carolling around the village,
the Church nativity
and Santa’s visit to our school.

Christmas eve was a hive of activity,
including children, almost bursting
with great expectations,
yet, determined to obey harassed parents,
lest Santa be watching.

Times, like seasons, inevitably change.
Now Christmas noisily stampedes
through our homes via the television
in October.

Shouts at us in November
demanding immediate attention
each time we visit the supermarket.

Screeches and screams at us
with such a cacophony
in December it makes us dizzy.

When it finally arrives, it plops
into our lives, tired, with no enthusiasm,
and scowls at unimaginative children
being fractious when their overpriced gifts
arrive without batteries…