2004

What was the big thing this year, was the weather.  With the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" out, which told of the arrival of an ice age, and the multiple hurricanes that had hit Florida and several other states this year, it seemed obvious where this poem would go.  I think when the line "On Bonnie, on Charlie, on Francis, and Jeanne" hit me, I knew that this was what it had to be.  (For those of you that are not from around these parts, those are the names of the four hurricanes to hit Florida this year.) 

So, taking the two themes, I combined them, and told the story of one very brave, red-suited soul.  The only one that would dare go out on a night so horrid.  

T’was the night before Christmas, and all through the house,
Everyone was hiding, yes, even the mouse.
The winds, they were howling, the temperature was cold.
Would Santa go out this night?  Would he be so bold?

The weather was miserable, there was ice and snow,
And the thermometer said it was 20 below.
We were huddled by the fire, hoping to get through the night,
But we were in Florida, I thought “This just ain’t right!”

The weather had been horrid since the middle of summer
The tropic air left, oh man, what a bummer.
The warm summer air had all gone away,
We hope it will return; real soon; some day.

The volleyball was gone, everything stopped with a screech,
Well, maybe not, there’s still snowboarding on the beach.
The summer sports ended, everything seemed so dead,
Don’t go to Vale this year, come to Florida instead.

The year had been bad, the storms as they came,
I can still see them now, I remember their names.
There was Alex and Lisa, and Danielle and Earl,
They came through so fast it made my head whirl.
Next came Bonnie and Charley and Francis and Jeanne,
I started to wonder, what did it all mean?

What would become of our nice warm place?
Would we have to go south in some type of race?
But the thoughts that came, and started to form,
Asked if reindeer could fly in this type of storm.

Would the man in red be coming around,
Or would this bad weather force him to ground?
It wasn’t about survival that we wanted to know.
It was whether Santa would come and set things aglow.

I added a log to the fire, and climbed back under the furs,
(fake, for all you PETA supporters out there)
I hoped it would be quite a while ‘fore I had to stir.
My brain was still moving, thinking thoughts way too deep,
Finally I managed to drift off to sleep.

Not much later I was awakened by noises overhead,
I thought “Oh no, hail” and this filled me with dread.
But the noise was not ice chunks that came from the roof,
It sounded like the patter made by a tiny, booted hoof
(or lots of them).

The next sound I heard was someone starting to swear,
About how there shouldn’t be an
“expletive deleted fire down there”. 
The noise on the roof stopped with one sudden thump.
Followed by one in the yard, a great big ‘whump’.

Next at the front door, there came a short knock,
But before I could answer, someone picked the lock.
Who could be so silly to be out in this cold?
Who could be crazy, yet daring and bold?

As I looked at the door, what to my eyes did appear,
But a red suited elf, and eight tiny reindeer. 
Each one was covered, wearing long johns and sweaters,
They looked like bizarre, and quite fat, Irish setters.

They were hitched as a team in front of a sleigh,
How the driver knew there’d be snow, t’was hard to say.
But then at that moment, the front door he closed,
The man in red smiled for a second and posed.

He was dressed in the traditional red uniform,
Which in its appearance didn’t look all that warm.
But I noticed extra padding, some here, and some there,
Long johns, I suppose, gave him the shape of a pear.

He looked straight at me, and gave a quick shrug,
Then came over by the fire and gave me a hug.
He said “Sorry, it’s a trick I learned way back when,
If the fire is burning, there’s another way in.”

The man in red smiled, and went straight to his work,
He emptied his sack, and then gave a quick jerk.
The tree how it shined, so pleasant, so warm.
It made us all think things would return to the norm.

Santa finished his work, and went to the door,
He said “I’m all finished here, I can’t stay any more.”
He went out the door, and jumped in his sleigh,
He called to his team, “Up, up, and away.”

They gave a short run, and jumped to the sky
No matter the weather, those reindeer can fly.
But I heard him exclaim as they flew out of sight,
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a warm night.”

Copyright Ó 2004 by

Brian and Shirley Dean