The Christmas Attic

(The Christmas Attic Poetry)

Somewhere in the universe
Between this night and God
An angel sat upon a star
While thinking very hard

To return once more to the Earth
He had been assigned
And a single gift for all of man
He was to leave behind

But this gift that he was to leave
Could not be taken from the heavenly court
And how could he leave something behind
If nothing could be brought

Now this was quite a puzzle
And he knew not how to start
When he suddenly felt a prayer from a child
Reach deep into his heart

And though his time was limited
To this one night of the year
He could not ignore this child's request
So he decided he would start here

For though this night was Christmas Eve
And dreams were all about
Somewhere down below on Earth
He had felt this child begin to doubt

A child who should have been asleep
Instead was climbing attic stairs
With her solitary candle
And a single Christmas prayer

Now, when angels they are called
They rarely just appear
But more often than not
They gently whisper in one's ear

And when they whisper to a child
On nights when snow still glistens
The chances are much stronger still
That, that child, will listen

So in this room where shadows live
And ghosts that failed learn time forgives
Welcome friends, please stay awhile
Our story starts with one small child
Who spends this night in an attic dark
Where dreams are stored like sleeping hearts

Now, if you wonder why this child is here
With all asleep and Christmas near
She's come up here to look for truth
In this place closest to the roof

For she had heard from friends who feel
That nothing on this night is real
That no adults truly believe
In all these things of Christmas Eve

This night that seems to cast a spell
Is the same world, just tinseled well
And as she lay in bed that night
She wondered if they might be right

And she wondered then who she might ask
About this question that had been cast
For adults, she had been told, you see
Are part of this conspiracy

But in her mind becoming clear
The shadow of a child's idea

There was one whose presence alone
Would reconfirm what she had known

But this man, he was so rarely seen
For he only arrived when children dreamed
But if what she had believed was right
He should appear this very night
So on this night with so much at stake
She's determined that she would stay awake

But then a problem came to mind
It seems that fate had not been kind
For their chimney had been closed that year
Some bricks might fall, her father feared

So she had devised another plan
To hear when on the roof he lands
So with the ghosts left here by fate
Upon this night she sits and waits

Now as I'm sure you all must know
When one is waiting, time moves slow
And as she wondered what to do
(her options seeming far too few)

The Angel caused that child to look
Behind a yellowed pile of books
Among these memories disguised as junk
She noticed there a well worn trunk

It was filled with toys and one old wreath
And several letters underneath
Some ornaments, a hand rung phone
And records with a gramophone

A mix of long forgotten words
With melodies no longer heard
All threads of long forgotten lives
But here somehow they had survived

These letters that had caught her eye
Now in her hands they seemed alive
And as each letter she unsealed
A small piece of the past was revealed

For Christmas weaves a life long spell
And most of all remembers well
And as that child explored the past
Once again that spell was cast

And as the child began to read
Upon this night of Christmas Eve
The Angel's plan, as you can tell
It was already working well
So as the ghosts gently arise
In our first song we'll summarize

The Ghosts Of Christmas Eve

The Ghosts Of Christmas Eve

The World That She Sees

That first letter, that she had read
In that attic far from bed
Was from a father trying to say
How his first child saw Christmas Day

The World That She Sees

The World That He Sees

Then after he had thought awhile
The father recalled another child
Born in a time now far away
And how this child's dreams
Had reached this day

He wondered what that child had thought
And when he slept what dreams he sought
And did the shepherds understand
All the hopes in that child's hands?
And how those hopes would still survive
As dreams within each newborn's eye

The World That He Sees

Midnight Christmas Eve

Then the child heard a clock tolling
From a distant city tower
And she gazed up at the starlight
On this Christmas midnight hour

And she wondered if these stars
Were all but bits of dreams
From somewhere in the distant past
That somehow, could still be seen

And she wondered if her candle
Upon this magic night
Could be seen by someone faraway
As their own starlight

The March Of The Kings/Hark The Herald Angels Sing

Then she saw a gramophone
From a time gone long before
Any in this room were born
But tonight it would be heard once more

For she had found a small handle
There upon one end
And when she turned it twice around
It began to play again

The Three Kings And I (What Really Happened)

Mixed among the letters
Was a young boy's school report
About the three wise men
And how they were nearly caught

Now many books have been written
About what had happened on that night
But this report was based upon
Some additional insight

It seems his uncle had come by
Each Christmas without fail
And claimed to know what really happened
In that classic Christmas tale

The Three Kings And I (What Really Happened)

Christmas Canon

The next letter included a receipt
For one toy stuffed bear
Donating it to a small thrift shop
But somehow it was left there

For attics have their secrets
And toys will have theirs, too
Like who once held or loved them
When they last were new

Whether they were made of metal
Or they were cotton stuffed
Or how they had been left here
When they were not enough

And so it's here that they must wait
Between reality and dream
Hoping all will be remembered
And that all can be redeemed

Then in the sound of the wind
Whistling through a door
She thought she heard the sound of children
That had held this toy before

And she then thought to herself
As she now held it in her hand
That no one could save all the world
But we should save who we can

So she placed it near her candle
For she had decided in her mind
That when she left this attic
He would not be left behind

Christmas Canon

Find Our Way Home

The next letter that she found
Was by a ribbon gently bound
To the key for a small music box
And she placed that key into its lock

And the melody that it had learned
Once again began to turn
And as that tune it filled the air
She opened the letter that was there

And that letter contained a news clipping
About a man with many things
In his world, a great success
And where he lived, the best address
His happy life the world did know
Because the papers told us so

But the Angel he could clearly see
That all was not as it appeared to be
For on this night as snow clouds gathered
That man wondered if that all really mattered
And on this night inside his home
He realized that he was alone

And he asked himself what his life had meant
How all these years they had been spent
And how he could feel his life such a waste
When he had every dream that he had chased
But then the Angel whispered in his ear
And in his mind the man heard clear

Tell me one wish that you have granted
Tell me one life you've enchanted
Tell me one of these things that you have done
But the man could not recall a single one

He was close to no one, this thing he did know
Well there was one person, but that was long ago
And though that someone
Had been far more than a friend
It was far too late to ever go back to her again

Find Our Way Home

Appalachian Snowfall

There is something about this night
That the Lord has arranged
That reaches deep into our souls
And causes us to want to change

And angels know things about us
That no else can know
And this Angel's heart it formed a plan
And then caused the night to snow

The Music Box

She had carefully read that article
And when she was all done
She started on the letter
And it was the saddest one

The Music Box

The Snow Came Down

Behind that single letter
Was a weathered photograph
Of that man in the article
But from somewhere in his past

And standing there beside him
In a setting summer sun
Was the lady who used to own this house
Only here she was quite young

She had moved to a smaller place
That was only right next door
And then the child noticed something else
That she had missed before

This letter had no stamp it seemed
And was surely never sent
And as she sat upon the floor
That child she wondered what it meant

Then the Angel whispered to her
A most important fact
That for compassion to be real
It requires one to act

Then once again that child came up
With a child's idea
But she knew she must act fast
For time, it was growing dear

So taking that article back downstairs
She found the kitchen phone
And called up information
To find the number of his home

And when he picked up the receiver
She quickly told him quite enough
To know who was waiting on this night for him
And then the child, she just hung up

Then to make sure that no one was awake
She took a quick look down the hall
Then she found her neighbor's number
And repeated that same call

The Snow Came Down

Christmas In The Air

In this last season of the year
This season that we trust
It's not only important to know for whom we wait
But to know who waits for us

And as they walked home together
To the light of Christmas trees
They could not help but wonder
About how this night came to be

While back inside the attic
The girl saw them walking through the snow
And she smiled with a child's delight
Thinking how they would never know

And suddenly she realized
Beneath this night of stars
Sometimes Christmas uses its own hands
And sometimes it uses ours

Christmas In The Air

Dream Child (A Christmas Dream)

The final letter that she read
Was from a younger man
It came with a journal
That was all written by hand

He had done something so wrong in life
That he no longer wished to live
But on this night he had a dream
And found that God forgives

If we truly regret how others we have hurt
He will understand
So he took the message from this night
And became a different man

Dream Child (A Christmas Dream)

An Angel's Share

Then she noticed on some Christmas cards
A reddish purple stain
Where someone had spilled some Christmas wine
And there it had remained

Until the heat from a radiator
Whistling in the air
Had caused it to evaporate
Into an angel's share

An Angel's Share

Music Box Blues

(Closing Poetry)

When she finished the last letter
From that little stack
She put each one in its envelope
And carefully put them back
Then she sat and thought quite carefully
About all she had learned
Realizing that her belief in this night
Had completely returned
For if all these grownups she had read
Had in this night believed
It could not be possible
That they all had been deceived
And she marveled how though every letter
Was signed with a different name
That in the end it seemed that all
Their wishes were the same
That the light that reached our lives
From that distant Christmas star
Would make us, if not perfect
Then perhaps better than who we are
And suddenly she noticed
That there was a present there
He must have come and left it
When she had gone down the stairs
Then she realized as for that chimney
She needn't have worried after all
For Christmas she had found this night
Could not be stopped by walls
Could not be stopped by distance
Could not be stopped by time
And if one lived a thousand years
It would still be there to find
Now some will say that all these gifts
Were left by her father or her mother
But I for one, will always suspect
It could have been another
And before she went back down the stairs
With her fading candlelight
She found some paper and wrote down
All that had occurred that night
And sometime on some distant night
We really can't say when
Someone will read that letter
And this night will live again
And so our story's over
And the child returned to bed
To dream about this magic night
And where it all had led
And the Angel who had heard her thoughts
About what she had learned
Now realized that his job was done
And it was time he should return
And taking back all he had brought
He returned just in time
To appear before his Lord
And tell him what he had left behind
There were two souls reunited
On a snow blessed Christmas Eve
And sleeping safely in her bed
Was the child who still believed
And once again the Lord smiled down
From his heavenly throne
And took the Angel into his heart
And whispered, welcome home
And may you also hear those words
All through your life
But may you hear them most of all
On every Christmas night
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Post Script
And the most magical thing
About this night we will now reiterate
That no matter where you are in life
It never is too late