Remembered Christmas

It was Christmas Eve in the old homestead
With windows draped in the same rich red
That everyone present remembered well
From his first year under the Christmas spell
The Christmas tree pine-sweet and tall
Had its sparse side pressed against the wall
And its spire branch topped by a homemade star
Snipped from tin by an ancestor
Long forgotten. The gifts were trapped
In holly boxes or tautly wrapped
In tissue paper that was so thin
It couldn't keep the secrets in
Each time the hall door opened wide
To let more kin and drafts inside
The cousins gathered to kiss those seen
Only at Christmas The months between
Were so forgotten one might believe
that it was still last Christmas Eve
Or even the Christmas Eve before
Or back still further,a hundred more
Till all of the family living and dead
Was Christmasing in the old homestead.
by Julia Hurd Strong