Christmas poem

[igenlode]

Still going through old papers: from the evidence of the names on the Christmas card list on the back of the sheet of paper, I was in high school and probably about thirteen when I wrote this. It's a greetings-card verse of the type I used to compose in the days when I made all my own cards, but a bit above the level of the average Hallmark product; I always did have a knack for balladry :-p
For some reason I went to the trouble of marking the metrical feet in the first verse, possibly in an attempt to replicate the metre for the last stanza...

Announce that Christmas-time is here!
Let the bells resound!
Let such things as bring good cheer
Be scattered all around!

Let the forest-scented trees
Be brought, bedecked with lights,
That they may raise such times as these
Above all other nights!

Though many gifts you may receive
Do not forget to give;
Then Christmas joy may never leave
However long you live.

Then up! Rejoice! Forget all fear!
Heed not your grief or pain!
The Christmas-time that comes this year
May never come again!

An oddly imperative approach, with a surprisingly sombre note amongst the commands for rejoicing ;-p