A Lifetime of Christmas Poetry
My mom, Raynette Forister Eitel, passed away in September of 2022, age 85, drifting away into dementia. It was tragic to watch this woman who loved words, who was a poet and teacher, fade away into wordlessness after a lifetime of crafting poetry.
Mom had a tradition of writing a new Christmas poem each year and sending it to friends and relatives. The mailing list grew each year, and people always told us they looked forward to mom’s Christmas poems. She published some in a couple little books. There are too many to post just once a day during the month of December, but I’ll choose some of the best.
Christmas Is
by Raynette Eitel, 1962
Christmas is many things to many people—
Mistletoe, holly wreaths, bells in a steeple;
Carolers singing their songs in the night,
Trees trimmed with tinsel and baubles so bright.
Downtown the stores full of new Christmas toys
Tempting and teasing those good girls and boys;
Wondering faces ‘round proud Christmas trees—
But for us, Christmas is much more than these.
Angels whose voices sang out the glad tiding,
Herod who sent the Christ child into hiding—
Stable a birthplace God made for a King—
This, we find, a significant thing.
Christmas is glitter and giving and gladness.
Sometimes it’s practical, sometimes it’s madness.
But in our hearts it sings out once again—
“Let there be peace on earth, good will to men.”
Let there be peace on earth—good will to men!
Writing Rhetorically 