"To The Top Of The Porch! To The Top Of The Wall!"

I aren’t no poet.

But this is a poem for the ages.

#26 of the 31 Things I Love About Christmas: Twas the Night before Christmas.

I have a book. Okay, I have several books…way too many books.

But there is one book. I have had it since Christmas ’91. I got this when I was 4 years old at the Christmas Book Fair/Sale/ Extravaganza at St. Cecilia’s Church where I attended preschool. While I do remember getting Frosty the Snowman and sadly, that book didn’t survive (but I can remember and could find the exact copy I had…don’t tempt me) I also got a 2nd book. My name inscribed by my mom in black Sharpie on the inside cover is still there. Stored in a plastic protective sleeve is a children’s picture book version of Clement C. Moore’s “Twas the Night before Christmas.” (TTNBC)

This book has survived nearly 20 years…then again so have I. Plus 4. Also a surviving artifact from my younger days (from the same year) is a green, gold and black wreath ornament made from pipe cleaners. It has hung on our tree ever since and will one day hang on the tree in our home.

TTNBC is so simple in its’ form and presentation and cinema graphic in quality. When reading it or hearing it, one can almost see it as a small movie, the descriptions are immaculate and stunning, but simple enough for a small child to grasp. Plenty of words I had no idea what their meaning was until many years later…as in last year, but I still managed to understand the story.

I don’t know why this poem has stuck with me. I still don’t know all 12 Days of Christmas. Maybe it’s because that children’s book has survived this long. Does anyone have anything from preschool? Leave it to me, I guess. Not to mention the greatly underrated 1974 Rankin-Bass Christmas special of the same name was on a prized tape of Christmas specials taped in the late 80’s which we have watched into the ground, I could tell you nearly everything on it in running order. (Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, Smurfs Christmas Special, A Chipmunk Christmas Special, Rudolph, Grinch, Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty, Frosty’s Winter Wonderland, Yes Virginia There Is A Santa Claus, Twas The Night Before Christmas…complete with timelessly terrible 80s commericals)

I even have a teddy bear, which is holding its’ cub, which reads the entire story out loud when you press a button. Pretty cute, I know. My copy of it has been worn well. I have read it to my brother and sister; sometimes I’m even tempted to read it to Sara. It has been nearby for nearly every Christmas I can remember.

I guess this poem and especially this treasured copy is another link to those days, before college loans and car payments, when I could close my eyes and actually picture Santa Claus standing in my living room, nibbling on cookies, thrownin back the egg nog, writing a thank you note that looked strangely like my dad’s handwriting and going on his merry way. The magic of childhood. Every now and then I would hear “Don’t grow up so fast.” Now I understand. But it is memories like this one, whether that’s an old book or a handmade ornament that allows those memories, no matter how silly or bizarre they may seem to others, to survive. I intend on getting it laminated and preserved page by page, so that I am able to read the very same copy to our children one day and I sure hope, to our grandchildren and the book will be passed on when it is time.

Yea. It matters that much.