by Max Pringle OAM
At Christmas time my mind drifts back
To a time that’s now long gone,
We didn’t have a lot back then
But we had a loving home.
We’d get one toy as a present
And we treated it with care,
Toys were rather scarce back then
And we often had to share.
The toys were only secondary
To the food we’d have that day,
Mum’s Christmas cake and plum pudding
And we’d tuck it all away.
We even had a goose or two
That our mum would cook and stuff,
So when it came to Christmas lunch
Well we always had enough.
It wasn’t all just fun and games
There were things that must be done,
Like milking cows and feeding calves
Interspersed with loads of fun.
That took place between the milkings
We’d go swimming if we could,
Or we’d have a game of cricket
We thought that was just as good.
Sometimes we’d walk a mile or more
To a neighbour’s tennis court,
Where even on the hottest days
An exciting match was fought.
Then walk the miles back home again
There’s more milking to be done,
But even that on Christmas Day
Often turned out to be fun.
Those days will never come again
As the world has changed somehow,
We went chasing after comforts
And we’re paying for it now.
The old home that we grew up in
Only had an inner wall,
It did what it was meant to do
And we didn’t mind at all.
We always had a Christmas tree
A small oak tree from next door,
With crepe paper decorations
And we didn’t look for more.
But then shortly after Christmas
The oak leaves would hit the floor,
We’d relocate the Christmas tree
To the woodheap by the door.
The trees are mostly plastic now
And of course their leaves don’t fall,
And while times were quite hard back then
They were the best years of all.
