Christmas Poems

Christmas Poems

Fables & Stories To Keep You Warm And
Literatured Up All Season

From classic Christmas poems to contemporary, below find a collection of poetry to suit your Christmas & holiday mood.  Underneath each poem is either the original collection the poem was published in or a themed anthology hosting the poem.  Everyday is a good day for poetry.

Some days are better to bring in thematic work, and holidays are especially ripe opportunities to weave poetry into your celebrations.  

How To Add Poetry & Story To Your Holiday Tradition

  •  Add a poem to a card. Print affix a poem  or hand write your favorite Christmas poem, and it to a card.
  • Laminate your favorite Christmas poem, or frame it and give the poem as a gift. 
  •  Ask your guests to bring their favorite Christmas poem to read around the tree, if you have a fire place even better! 
  • Purchase one of the collections below. Make poetry collection gift giving a new holiday tradition.
  • Write your own Christmas poem based on one of the poems below. 
Love Came Down at Christmas
By Christina Rossetti

 Love came down at Christmas, 

   Love all lovely, Love Divine; 

Love was born at Christmas, 

   Star and angels gave the sign. 

Worship we the Godhead, 

   Love Incarnate, Love Divine; 

Worship we our Jesus: 

   But wherewith for sacred sign? 

Love shall be our token, 

   Love be yours and love be mine, 

Love to God and all men, 

   Love for plea and gift and sign

time Flies

A Reading Diary

“Love Came Down at Christmas” was first published in Time Flies: A reading Dairy. 

 

The Magi

By William Butler Yeats
Now as at all times I can see in the mind’s eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depths of the sky
With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones,
And all their helms of silver hovering side by side,
And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more,
Being by Calvary’s turbulence unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.
 
& The Adoration of the MAgi
by W.B. Yeats

The above poem is an excerpt found in this collection. Read more here.

by Timothy Steele

Although the roof is just a story high,
It dizzies me a little to look down.
I lariat-twirl the cord of Christmas lights
And cast it to the weeping birch’s crown;
A dowel into which I’ve screwed a hook
Enables me to reach, lift, drape, and twine
The cord among the boughs so that the bulbs
Will accent the tree’s elegant design.

Friends, passing home from work or shopping, pause
And call up commendations or critiques.
I make adjustments. Though a potpourri
Of Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and Sikhs,
We all are conscious of the time of year;
We all enjoy its colorful displays
And keep some festival that mitigates
The dwindling warmth and compass of the days.

Read the rest of the poem here.

by Allie Esiri

This anthology boasts such poets as Brian Bilston, Robert Burns, Wendy Cope, T. S. Eliot, Christina Rossetti. E. E. Cummings, Dylan Thomas, Clement Clarke Moore and many more. Now all poems are Christmas themed, however. Though, many are classics that will get you through any cold winter day.

Grab the collection here. 

by e.e. cummings

little tree

little silent Christmas tree

you are so little

you are more like a flower

who found you in the green forest

and were you very sorry to come away?

see          i will comfort you

because you smell so sweetly

i will kiss your cool bark

and hug you safe and tight

just as your mother would,

only don’t be afraid

look          the spangles

that sleep all the year in a dark box

dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,

the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,

put up your little arms

and i’ll give them all to you to hold

every finger shall have its ring

and there won’t be a single place dark or unhappy

then when you’re quite dressed

you’ll stand in the window for everyone to see

and how they’ll stare!

oh but you’ll be very proud

and my little sister and i will take hands

and looking up at our beautiful tree

we’ll dance and sing

“Noel Noel”

Some of our best poets can be found in this true Christmas collection.  This book is a true classic for any poet, or poetry lover you know. 

Grab the collection here.

Christmas Mail

By Ted Kooser

Cards in each mailbox,

angel, manger, star and lamb,

as the rural carrier,

driving the snowy roads,

hears from her bundles

the plaintive bleating of sheep,

the shuffle of sandals,

the clopping of camels.

At stop after stop,

she opens the little tin door

read the rest of the poem here .

New And Selected Poems
By Ted Kooser

While the poem “Christmas Mail” is not in this collection, there are several other seasonal and Christmas poems to be found in this book.  

by Emily Bronte

The night is darkening round me,

The wild winds coldly blow;

But a tyrant spell has bound me

And I cannot, cannot go.

The giant trees are bending

Their bare boughs weighed with snow.

And the storm is fast descending,

And yet I cannot go.

Clouds beyond clouds above me,

Wastes beyond wastes below;

But nothing drear can move me;

I will not, cannot go.

This poem is in the public domain.

by Louise Gluick
 
It is the evening
of the birth of God.
Singing &
with gold instruments
the angels bear down
upon the barn, their wings
neither white
wax nor marble. So
they have been recorded:
burnished,
literal in the composed air,
they raise their harps above
the beasts likewise gathering,
the lambs & all the startled
silken chickens … And Joseph,
off to one side, has touched
his cheek, meaning
he is weeping —

 

But how small he is, withdrawn
from the hollow of his mother’s life,
the raw flesh bound
in linen as stars yield
light to delight his sense
for who there is no ornament.
 
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