Nutcrackers Poems | Examples

Real Christmas

The Real Christmas


From Black Friday to Christmas Eve,
presents to purchase and wrap. 
Office and family parties, visits to relatives
platters of food and gallons of alcohol.
Trees dressed to the nines in dangling baubles
and twinkling lights.
Continuous Christmas carols blaring from radios
and loud speakers.
Wreaths and decorations to adorn tables,
night stands, credenzas, book shelves.
Lights hung in strings so large that rows
of houses look like runways for planes.
Inflatable Santas, snowmen, reindeer and nutcrackers
compete for space in yards.
Nativities, pageants, plays special music
consume congregations.

Is this the real Christmas?
Or perhaps it is-
A silent night, two thousand years ago
in a dimly lit cave.

A babe wrapped in woolen clothes
lying in a sheep’s feeding trough.
Only shepherds and loving parents
in attendance.
An infant destined to change history.
The future savior of the world.

Ah Nuts-Cracker

I lost the sticks
To play my drum
Missing a fist
So, yes a thumb

Still have a head
Though am real flawed
With a bent lever
That moved my jaw

Missing those things
Is a pet peeve
Since was stepped on
Last Christmas Eve

My friends have faults
Like missing poles
That used to fit
Their hands with holes

Some lost a shoe
And therefore feet
But stand there tall
To meet and greet

The team player
In red gym shorts
Though with no ball 
Still’s a good sport

The fireman’s hose
Is short a spout
But he’s ok
And doesn’t pout

A nutcracker’s job
Is standing tall
Even when broke
From alcohol

Which all began
Last Christmas Eve
When drinks were poured
By Grace and Steve

And someone said
Let’s break some nuts
Which was the launch
For those wingnuts

Coz Leo barked
Hey look up there
High on the shelf
I’ll grab a chair

Grace yelled get down
They’re for display
They don’t crack nuts
Steve joined the fray

Nutcrackers fell
Into a clump
Followed by two
Half tipsy chumps

Steve landed on
His coconut
Yet Leo got
His broken nuts

Christmas Cheers

poinsettias blooming
on someone else’s mantel -
clearly I see them
guarded by two nutcrackers
and cheered on by crackling fire

Xmas Embellishments

Gifts love-packed
Glass-balls gleam around
Plastic-bells compact
Move to and fro without sound
Amidst wreaths, and nutcrackers
Wool-stuffed Santa Claus 
Waves his hands like backpackers
Gives a smiling solemn silent pose
Stockings and reindeers 
Occupy their spaces as though it's their right
Snowmen on snowglobes with no fears
Mock at the Gnome that resembles a skeleton knight
Nativity Figures and Sets change the zeitgeist
Cardinals, finches, and redpolls rhythm-set  
All cumulate their concentration on Christ
Has Emmanuel, in the hearts of humanity, been born yet…?

Marionette Soup

Marionette soup comes in a midnight bowl
Filled to the brim with mushroom tumbling
Under the golden moon dolls cut their strings
Nutcrackers on crash diets sink saltines
Welcomed to float inside awhile
But not included in the price of dining

Russian dolls introduced to soup dive in
One after another dropped into darkness
Each one becomes smaller and smaller 
Within themselves only they know why
Perhaps pretty painted faces need flavor 
To appreciate the human race

There is no soup for you!

Forget about spoons at this hour
Two dainty fingers made of wood
Hold the bowl sides in balance for taste
Preparing to slurp what is inside
But marionettes are dignified. They don’t slurp
Discerning humans understand this part
It is an art
They have come to eat you and your soul
Assuming you have one worth consumption

Playful Nutcracker Stockings

The nutcracker stockings could not resist the urge to play
They sat silent without moving the entire long day
But at night when the lights went out,
They began to whirl twirl, twist and shout

We are the nutsies, the mighty mighty nutcrackers!
These silly humans are crazy, completely polly-wackers!
The humans heard, and two ran down the stairs.
But the stockings were fast, and they hung and gave them stares.

The humans went back up and the nutcrackers sang a song.
Footsteps on the stairs, they knew it would not be long.
The humans were bamboozled, confused, did not know what to do.
Nutcracker stockings kept them on their toes until a quarter after two.

Peaburger Prairie Dog

There was no activity at all in the prairie on this marvelous day.
Peaburger was happy to be off on his journey, on his sweet way.
Had a knapsack on his back, and warm ideas in his adventurous heart.
He could hardly wait to get away from his ex-wife and make a new start.

Ex-wife had moved back in with her new husband and their kids five.
He did not care if he ever again saw any of these prairie dogs alive.
His ex-wife came to the mouth of the hole and yelled “happy be!”
He rolled his eyes, not caring about her, or her new husband Gree.

I am just too generous, too giving, the always-will-finish-last kind of guy,
He lamented as he walked, talking himself into being meaner with try.
Around noon he got out a peanut, and started to eat with his crackers.
He was promptly surrounded by five hungry spotted nutcrackers.

He rolled his eyes to the sky and asked “Why God? Why me?”
He had given those nutcrackers all his food by a quarter until three.
I'm doomed to always be that kind of guy he lamented to angels above.
Young frisky prairie dog who had been watching promptly fell in love.

Decorating the Home For Christmas

On the fireplace floor spread
One wooden tree Santa and deer
The top of the mantel stands
Four nutcrackers one very tall
Two are the same height short
Lights placed on the bottom lit4e

A Christmas tree decorated 
From top to bottom 
With lights red and white
then red and green balls
Two red bids are hung
Followed by white beads
        strung
Then the gnome is placed on 
        top

H I J K L M and N

Hippy hyena hid hipster hippo’s hysteria.
Ignominious iguana ignored Iceland’s icky industries.
Jovial jelly jars joyfully jumped jubilantly into June.
Kind kangaroos killed Kansas’s killjoy kindnesses.
Loving lithe llamas languished, lacking lonely leaders.
Marvelous magnificent magicians masqueraded as maestros.
Needless nutcrackers helped hippy hyenas hide hippos’ hysteria.

To Die For

Branches frosted in ice

Wonderland magic waiting in awe to thaw

Pink blossoms ready to surpass hibernation

	Spring in their timeless steps

				Candle wax waned

The Little Drummer boy back in his box

Wrapped in kind tinsel for resurrection

	Illumination darkened

				Nutcrackers remain

Shells of Christmas foreshadow and abandoned

Reality calls for beating another lonely retreat

	Granny back at the nursing home

				Outsourced happiness

Spoon fed dribbles ooze onto parched kerchiefs

The turnings of life confined to a wheel chair

	Business fast as usual
	
				Reindeers on holiday

Santa's temporary visa faded and expired

An immigrant nurse from foreign shores

	Gives love and caresses

				Crossroads once more

New Year is dawning to the spin of the earth

The token Jesus nailed and forgotten leaves

	A silhouette on the wall

				Another chance wasted

Forgotten resolve scripted in blood and in vain

Soldiers will march again for irreverent fortune

	Guns frosted in ice


27th December 2019

Squirreled Away

winter squirrels
celebrate the holidays
urban nutcrackers


John G. Lawless
©12/13/2018

Naomi At the Christmas Tree

My seven-month-old daughter, beside herself
with swirling fascination, has unfolded
her tiny arm a bridge for Christmas elves’
safe passage, unconcerned she’s being scolded
by Papa Grinch - who’s clacking away at this.
From my perspective on the less-festive couch,
I cannot see her sparkling eyes witness
magical animation, but I’ll vouch
something’s ‘bout to go down, based on a smile
and ding-a-ling giggles; her angelic face
lit up as though nutcrackers march awhile
icicles melt the seams of man-made space
where a dad’s unaware this innocent time
(just for me) gift wraps Naomi’s holiday crime.

11/30/2018

Christmas Mourning

I loved Christmas. Every year
Bach’s oratorio filled the church,
the boys’ voices soaring skyward. We drank
mulled wine at the market, lighted 
candles on the wooden pyramids,
carefully set up mom’s collection of nutcrackers, carved
by hand in small villages in the ore mountains.
We baked Grandma’s cookies, 
smelled the incense in the wooden smokermen,
and sang the old carols, mom at the piano,
we all perfectly harmonizing. Gathered
around the big table, extended to fit everybody,
we shared meals and love.

All this is decades 
and an ocean away. Now Christmas 
means loneliness
in a land that is still
foreign, when the homesickness, 
held at bay during the year,
flares 
and distance bites
like a bitter wind. 



Date: 11/18/2018
Contest:  CHRISTMAS MOURNING
Sponsor:  PS Awtry

You Have To Eat a Peck-Of-Dirt

you have to eat a peck-of-dirt

three little rag-a-muffins
sit, heads bent  busy,
at a small wooden table
plunked down there
in Shadey Anderson’s hay field
dragged from the house 
to that special spot for tea

fine chiana 
a Christmas doll set
placed ever so carefully
by grubby play worn fingers

an ancient hickory shades
promises nuts for the table
later, in the fall,

when we sit together
among the roots
borrowed nutcrackers and picks
busy preparing a feast

for now tea is up
the delicately flowered pot 
carefully filled with “tea”
from a puddle beneath the table.

Dance

Dance

I have been dancing
since I was young.
Point,
Flex.

From Ballet class 
to tap.
Shuffle 
Hop
Step,
Point,
Flex.

Moving to NYC,
and starting hip hop.
Pop it,
Lock it,
Shuffle
Hop
Step,
Point,
Flex.

Then, the grand style,
Broadway, like the show girls (just for 8+ year olds)
High 
Kick,
Pop it,
Lock it,
Shuffle
Hop
Step,
Point,
Flex.

Back to ballet,
suck in your stomach for the Nutcrackers.
Suck
In,
High
Kick,
Pop It,
Lock it,
Shuffle 
Hop
Step,
Point,
Flex.

-Millie Cooper

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