We were oh so good
We took the kids to see the Christmas lights
We sometimes didn’t change the station
When your favorite carols played

We were oh so good
I was kind to people I didn’t know
and people I didn’t like
and even the people I live with

We were oh so good
Julie put up your mother’s tree
We wrapped and we sang and we pretended nothing was wrong

We were nice, not naughty
Christmas was white and blue
We danced like sugarplum fairies
around the exposed nerves and raw edges

I crept down the stairs once everyone else was asleep
Hoping that Santa would grant my only wish
but we must not have been good enough
All I want for Christmas is my mother back
but you’re still asleep under the snow.

— tbird Christmas 2009

[2 Dec 2014: When I originally posted this on Facebook, I said that it probably made Christmas sound worse than it really was. Five years on — God! Really? — five years on, I think the poem is pretty accurate.]