When I was a small boy in the 1950s there were many things which I looked forward to at Christmas. Along with the usual visit from Santa there were the decorations, the paper chains and lanterns made at school, plus the holly leaves and berries printed on bread wrappers and milk bottle tops.
Additionally for me was the following poem, which I heard from my Grandma, Olive. Although a poem it wasn’t all recited, since the second and third verses were sung. She was the only person I know who knew it.
I have looked on the Net, and I have asked around. Others I know have searched the Net, but so far no-one has recognised the poem or can say who wrote it and when.
The mention of ‘candles and tapers’ for me evokes Edwardian or Victorian times, as does ‘sailors in suits of blue’, but it may have been written later and just be in the style of those eras.
I can’t believe that it was written by my Grandma, but who knows ? Anyone out there ?
‘Twas Christmas Eve on a frosty night
Nurse had gone and left no light,
Little Robert’s face with gladness beamed
Olive Greasley
This is what my darling dreamed.
Oh Saint Nicholas came so speedily
Over the frozen snow.
Lots of eatables, lots of drinkables
Coming for me I know.
He is bringing me nuts and oranges
Candles and tapers too.
Dolls in ribbon and dolls in satin
And sailors in suits of blue.
Interesting News
Some additional information on the poem came to light just after Christmas 2015. A lady Emailed the website saying that she remembered her mother reciting the poem to her on every Christmas Eve from 1944, as her mother had done before her in a well established family tradition going back to the 1920s and earlier.
There were slight differences in the wording, as one would expect with an aural tradition, but the main body of the poem was identical. The lady in question lives in Kent, her mother was from Essex and her grandmother was from Dorset, which discounts my theory of it being local to Nottinghamshire.
If anyone has more information please get in touch.