When the Puritans banned Christmas
because they thought it somehow Popish,
a bedraggled personification of the holiday
arose in the form of Father Christmas,
dressed in out-of-date ruffles, with white
hair and thin white beard, like a refugee
from a bygone era of festive merry-making.
After the Restoration, Father Christmas
took on weight and became more jolly
and a bit magical, with a twinkling eye
and the power to transform even dour
doubters into dancers and singers of carols.
And so it is metaphor became myth, and,
as so often happens, we have all but
forgotten the meaning behind the legend.
