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10 Festive Christmas Poems To Get You Ready For The Holidays

Matt Grant

Staff Writer

Matt Grant is a Brooklyn-based writer, reader, and pop culture enthusiast. In addition to BookRiot, he is a staff writer at LitHub, where he writes about book news. Matt's work has appeared in Longreads, The Brooklyn Rail, Tor.com, Huffpost, and more. You can follow him online at www.mattgrantwriter.com or on Twitter: @mattgrantwriter

Ready to get your holiday season started off right? Try these festive Christmas poems that can be read alone with a mug of tea or read out loud to bring in the season.

The Best Christmas Poems

10 great Christmas poems to help get you into the season. Christmas poems | poetry | seasonal poetry | holiday poetry | Christmas literature

1. Christmas at Sea by Robert Louis Stevenson

2. Remembrance of Christmas Past by Judith Viorst

3. Christmas Comes Again by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard

Excerpt:

Let me be merry now, ’tis time;
The season is at hand
For Christmas rhyme and Christmas chime,
Close up, and form the band.

4. Why I Dread Christmas by Marena Koenka

5. For the Neighbor at Christmas by Maria Catherino

Excerpt:

On Christmas day you show me how to seed a pomegranate

to split it down the center and
pluck out the pulpy red eyes with a fork.
I pile them on the cutting board, their white pupils watching as we talk about
music, bicycles, the liberal arts
and what passes for pleasantries between strangers.

Christmas Poems for Kids

6. Singing Christmas Carols by Jack Prelutsky

Excerpt:

On Christmas Eve we bundle up
and go out caroling,
our neighbors shut their windows
when they hear my family sing.


7. Merry by Shel Silverstein

The Pin

8. Dear Santa Slam from SPARC Poetry

Winter Holiday Poems

9. Chanukah Lights Tonight by Steven Schneider

10. A Poem of Unity: Kwanzaa, Day 1 by Sonia Dixon

Excerpt:

Here we are on distant shores,
Searching for love ones lost,
Knowing their pain and suffering
Was an ocean of love lost.
Can’t you see the sun is shining
Bringing energies of love?

Want more poetry this holiday season? Book Riot has you covered!