#ChristmasInJuly #writingprompt

This post is part of Teagan Geneviene’s Christmas In July blog hop. https://teagansbooks.com/

Decorating the tree didn’t go well for the first few years after I married a man with three daughters. They thought my decorations were tacky (they were, but memories, yo), and they couldn’t agree on what of their (some tacky, but memories, also yo) decorations should go on and where they should go. Tears. Tantrums. Refusals to participate at all.

And sometimes, this.

The poem is in the style of Ogden Nash, who wrote humorous poetry that rhymed AA BB but had a totally random syllable count in each line.

TRADITION

by Marian Allen
(with apologies to Ogden Nash)

I ’ve never been able “to see
if reindeer really know how to fly,” but I know a Christmas tree
sure can.
All you have to do is take a man–
my husband, for example–
take him to the woods and let him trample
around in the snow, looking for the very best
tree he can find. Let the rest
of the family stay home where it’s warm, or let them come
and argue and call one another’s choices “dumb.”
Choose a tree that looks just the right
size for the room. I guarantee you that the height
of that tree will be at least two feet over,
a fact which you must let your man discover
before he takes the tree inside
so, while everybody else goes in for popcorn and hot chocolate, he can stay out on the porch and cut lengths off the trunk until the tree is less high than it is wide.
Then
let him in.
Next, your man must spend an hour looking in the basement for a tree stand and then you must find it in a minute in the attic.
Your man’s language will become emphatic.
Finally, let the tree not fit the stand, and let it lean once it’s whittled down to size, and let it fall over unless somebody’s holding it, and let everybody start fighting over what ornaments to use and how much tinsel, and let them all get mad and go to separate rooms declaring that they don’t care if the tree never gets decorated and, when all this has been done, open the back door and stand by.
That tree will fly.

A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: A Christmas tradition

MA