T'was the night before Christmas, and all through the house,not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.The stockings were hung by the fire which glowed orange,The tree it was lit, and it looked just like...
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| Over the past decades (or so), Shirley and I
(Brian) have been writing our own Christmas cards. The theme each year is
set to Clement Clarke Moore's classic tale, "A Christmas Story"
(better known as "The Night Before Christmas"). Our first
poem came out in 1994, a year in which we did two poems. We
generally try to do one poem with a science fiction slant since most of
our friends are SF fans, and one for our relatives who wouldn't have a
clue what we were talking about if we explained it.
Usually, one of us comes up with an idea, and one key phrase. Then I generally flush out the text of the poem. Next, Shirley reads it, and tells me all the things she doesn't like about it. After that, we work together to come up with alternate verses and phrasing. In the last phase, Shirley goes through and checks all the spelling and punctuation, and generally looks for typos. Basically, she makes it look presentable. After that, it is a matter of formatting and printing on holiday paper. Depending on our creativity, or lack thereof, we manage to come up with at least one poem a year. There have been many years that one was all we did. And then there was the year we did three. As far as subjects go, we have touched on Star Wars, future predictions, politics (much to the rue of my republican relatives), Lost in Space, Y2K, Microsoft, Florida, and internet shopping. Every year, it is a struggle (usually at the last minute) to come up with an idea, and get it on paper and in the mail before Christmas. There have been years where the cards went in the mail only a couple of days before. Each year, it gets harder to find a theme and flush it out before it is too late. Each year we get closer and closer to buying preprinted cards at the last moment. Coming up with the idea, and making the time to get it worked out and on paper is a difficult task. One year I'm afraid our poem might look like this...
On the following page is the index to all 43 (so far) of our Christmas creations (including the two end of the decade summaries). Each poem has the base story behind it, and the index page gives more information on the creation. So, please, enter and enjoy. Christmas Poem Index |