Let's try this again.

My annual holiday gripe, of a hopefully different stripe.

Happy Hannukah

Happy Hijra

Happy Festival of Lights

...

Happy Ashura

Happy Kwanzaa

Happy Cozy Winter Nights

...

Happy Solstice, Saturnalia

And far more obscure religious rites.

...

Happy Birthday Ra and Jesus,

Beetoven and Mary Queen of Scots.

...

I hope your festivals of Shiva, Neith and Alycone

Were appropriately full of delights.

...

Happy Christmas, Christian Friends,

Happy Pies, Hams, Breads and Turkeys...

all of which turning out just right.

...

To claim a single day for joy just seems so silly to me

when so many good things come around.

...

I know it's so much better to savor every smell and sound.

It's winter here, and time for stars

and snow and tasty things to bite.

...

Let's simply celebrate our time together.

As people.

Let's celebrate hope, and hard work.

Let's celebrate everything in sight!

...

So without a grimmace, groan or whinge,

Dear Friends I wish you:

Good Yule.

Happy Holidays.

Sleep Tight.

NB: Happy Birthday also to my Brother and my Grandfather,

to Emily Dickinson, Henri Matisse, Giaccomo Puccini,

John Milton, Martin Van Buren, Georges Seurat,

Jane Austen, Rudyard Kipling

and Nostradamus; all of whom (and too many more to mention)

this world would be a much poorer place without.