An Aussie Night Before Christmas

In the next two days, I am going to focus my posts on Christmas. I so hope you don’t mind. 🙂 As I mentioned in my post on traditions, we read the story of A Night Before Christmas every Christmas Eve. In this post I want to share the Aussie version with you. It was adapted by Yvonne Morrison and in the book I have the illustrations were done by Kilmeny Niland.

An Aussie Night Before Christmas

‘Twas the night before Christmas;

there wasn’t a sound.

Not a possum was stirring;

no-one was around.

We’d left on the table

some tucker and beer

Hoping that Santa Claus

soon would be here;

We children were snuggled up safe in our bed,

While dreams of pavlova danced round in our heads;

And Mum in her nightie, and Dad in his shorts,

Had just settled down to watch TV sports,

When outside the house

a mad ruckus arose:

Loud squeaking and bangning

woke us from our doze.

We ran to the screen door,

peeked cautiously out,

Snuck onto the deck,

then let out a shout.

Guess what had woken us up

from our snooze,

But a rusty old ute

pulled by eight mighty ‘roos.

The cheerful man driving

was giggling with glee,

And we both knew at once

who this plump bloke must be.

Now, I’m telling the truth – it’s all dinki-di,

Those eight kangaroos fairly soared through the sky.

Santa leaned out the window to pull at the reind,

And encouraged the ‘roos, by calling their names.

‘Now, Kylie! Now, Kirsty!

Now, Shazza and Shane!

On, Kipper! On, Skipper!

On, Bazza and Wayne!

Park up on that water tank,

Grab a quick drink,

I’ll scoot down the gum tree,

Be back in a wink!’

So up to the tank

those eight kangaroos flew,

With the ute full of toy,

and Santa Claus too.

He slid down the gum tree

and jumped to the ground,

Then in through the windo

he sprang with a bound.

He had bright sunburned cheeks

and a milky white beard.

A jolly old joker

was how he appeared.

He wore red stubby shorts

and old thongs on his feet,

And a hat of deep crimson

as shade from the heat.

His eyes – bright as opals –

Oh! how they twinkled!

And, like a goanna,

his skin was quite wrinkled!

His shirt was stretched over

a round bulging belly

Which shook when he moved,

like a plate full of jelly.

A fat sack of prezzies

he flung from his back,

And he looked like a swaggie

unfastening his pack.

He spoke not a word,

but bent down on one knee,

To position our goodies

beneath the Yule tree.

Surfboard and footy-ball shapes

for us two.

And for Dad, tongs to use

on the new barbeque.

A mysterious package

he left for our mum,

Then he turned and he winked

and he held up his thumb;

He strolled out on deck and his ‘roos came on cue’

Flung his sack in the back

and prepared to shoot through.

He bellowed out loud

as they swooped past the gates –

‘Merry Christmas to all,

and goodonya mates!’