And you have to look contented as you sit and watch them stuff—

When they give you Christmas pudding, and consider it a treat,

Though they know that you are feeling far too bilious to eat—

When the very house reverberates with tradesmen's constant knocks,

As they call in quick succession to demand a Christmas-box!

Oh, Christmas is a season, when I long to sit alone,

In some clean and quiet garret, I can really call my own;

Where no Christmas Cards can reach me with their idiotic rhymes—

Where I never hear of Harris, and his splendid Pantomimes.

Where the turkey and the goose would feel distinctly out of place,