This year’s Christmas will be like no other.
You can’t see your kids, your aunt or brother.
But it’s still a time to be of good cheer.
Two-o-two-one will be a better year.

To all who during this season of greens
Await the coming of COVID vaccines,
Be safe and be well, and patient also.

The scientists – Fauci, Birx, and the rest –
Urged all of us to do our very best.
The message was clear, not really high art:
Wear masks, wash hands, distance six feet apart.

Many did what the docs recommended.
Others didn’t; numbers upwardly trended.
As we end the year and greet a new one
Let’s hope for health, safety, and, maybe, fun.

The hope is that Santa, all safely masked,
Will bring the kids the gifts for which they asked.
We need smiles amid so much strife and stress
So let’s hope Mr. Claus gladly says “yes!”

While take-out is great, it’s not what we need
For restaurants and all those that they feed.
So when the pandemic makes a retreat
Go right out and get something good to eat.

Most important, it goes without saying,
Are the workers for whom we’re all praying.
May those who take care of or protect us:
Have nothing in life about which to fuss.

To the schools and all the students thereof:
Get back to class and those you miss and love.
To teachers: put your Zoom classes away
And see your charges in classrooms each day.

During the horrible year we’ve just had
Performing artists have really been sad.
No concerts to give, no plays to perform.
We hope soon this will be back to the norm.

Our athletes had somewhat fewer troubles.
Hockey and basketball both in bubbles.
Not one player tested positive so
The Cup and The Finals were both a go.

Football and baseball did not fare so well.
Some players and teams entered virus hell.
They played on nonetheless, with fans galore
Watching at home, likely wishing for more.

Vases full of beautiful plants that bloom
For the geniuses who gave us all Zoom.
Without it today, no ifs, ands, or buts,
We all would, you can be certain, go nuts.

The good news as January draws near:
This troubling and painful pandemic year,
Will end, with better days and weeks ahead
And many fewer things for us to dread.

So here’s to a splendid two-oh-two-one
With most. If not all, of the trauma done.
Let’s hope these holidays are filled with joy
Especially for ev’ry girl and boy.

And finally to you all, readers dear:
May the next one be a most splendid year
Filled for you with much merriment and glee
And, perhaps, a partridge in a pear tree.