The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1952-12-26
Just Among Ourselves
Psssins Comment censidsrsd or Ineensidsrats

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all
thT ugh the house not creature was stirring :"
This is not quite accurate. There were in fact
good many creatures stirring. Father had moved the
tree just little this way and just little that until
he dizzy. Mother bustling at hundred tasks
but taking time now and again to keep father busy
al his forestry. Uncle Mortimer, prematurely wassa
ing had come in to beam upon all and sundry, and
had stepped ruinously upon book Of recordings
the children had left on the floor; in consequence,
there was to be no rednosed Rudolph and no Frosty
the Snow Man al that Christmas celebration.
THE children were nestled all snug in their
beds" That's what the poet thinks. True the chill.
dren had been oyerpowered by main force and put
to bed along towards midnight after hours of sug-
gestion and even pleading had been wasted in the
effort to get them there But you could hardly call
nesting nor were they al all snug; they were inn
prsoned impounded, yet insecurely, for they
apt TO come bounding out at any moment to join
again in the hub-bub below stairs and to be harred
back TO quarters in tears amid parental cries that
had little of Christn as in them and nothing what
ever of merriment.
"While visions of sugar-pums danced in their
heads" Not these children They never heard of
sugar-plums, and wouldn't understand the term as
merely old fashioned name for candy And candy
however pleasant is by no means Christmas spec
lalty II is to be had almost any day No; the visions
that danced in the heads of these children were Wis
ions of space ships and Hoppy suits and guns and
helicopters and chemical sets 10 make atom bombs
Sugar plums indeed
Mama in her kerchief and | in my cap" Well
no. Mama looked something like a general of the
Amazons; she had been TO the hairdresser and her
head solidly encased in helmet of steel clips
out of such Gearsome array of armor was to come
the soft curl, the breezeossed tress AS for father
no cap was required to keep his locks in order al,
though one might have been useful to protect his
cleaning nudity of scalp.
When out on the lawn there arose such cIat
ter sprang from my bed to see what was the
matter" Not from bed Father and mother we're far
from that haven of desired repose There were still
thousand things TO do, and time grew short
tempers grew shorter The catter the lawn?
Mortimer and his friends to be sure; full Of spirit
and of spirits Just another bothersome incident to
add to the distraction and the confusion of nor
NAL Christmas Eve
THE moon, on the breast of the newfallen
snow, gave a luster OF midday to objects below 7"
The new.faen snow had been hammered into ice
by the buzzng traffic of the streets The midday
luster unneeded in the twinkle and glare of a
million colored lights put up by people who we're
striving to win neighborhood prize, or at least
10 gain honorable mention in the local paper.
when what to my wondering eyes should ap
pear but miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein
deer" No, that's not il. What father saw, when he
was able to see after telling off Mortimer and his
hoodloom friends, was no miniature sleigh but
coupe and a convertible. and what he heard was
not slegh-bells but the merry tinkle of folding
tenders
with little old driver, so lively and quick !"
pair of drivers in fact; not little or old but quick
enough, and full of loud and profane utterance.
What they said was not merely Donder and Bitten.
And presently, with all the veye of Dancer and
Prancer, there were two policemen the scene,
good advice on lip, ticketbook in hand
And then in a twinkling heard on the roof
the prancing and paving of each little hoof" Those
children arc out of bed again! The long night verg
ing towards dawn; the final hour when the secret
things can be dragged out of hiding at long last
and placed beneath the tree And then that pranc.
ing and paving of each little hoof" Stern words and
Sterner actions are required here The modern Santa
Claus must come TO town with pack in one hand
and paddle in the other
Laying a finger aside of his nose and giving a
nod, up the chimney he rose" The unfrocked Santa
whose Christmas Eve has been more than filled with
the seasonal employments OF single household.
lays finger, moi aside of his nose, but upon his
lips. And the nod he gives to the partner of his
joys is not one of genial farewell, but of concur.
renee in plot TO slip noiselessy up the stairway
omittng the chimney trp,-for an hour of troubled
rest before the jamboree and hulabaoo break loose
in all their Christmas fury.
Away they flew like the down from thistle "
Rather phrase It thus: upward they both crawled
like pair of galley-slaves unclaimed from heart
breaking stint at the oars. And in their minds was
the grim prospect of coming down again almost
Immediately. Nevertheless, beneath fatigue and ap
prehension, there was in them some dim but bright
ming awareness of the angels song and the dawn oil
Christmas breaking across the house.tops of al
the world.
Happy Christmas to all and TO all goodnight"