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This all-too-true poem is just as relevant for many people today as it was way back in 1912. This was in the January 1912 issue of Motion Picture Story Magazine.
The Tyranny of Christmas
Harvey Peake
I wonder what I’d better buy
For Sue and Maud and Bess;
We are not friends, we cant agree,
Yet each one will expect from me
Five dollars’ worth — no less.
Then there is that young Marlynspike,
Who does my wrath inspire,
He’ll look for something just because
He taught me all those golfing laws —
Five dollars he’ll require.
Tho, as my uncle’s wealthy heir,
My chances are quite slim,
I’ll try to turn his wealth my way,
By Christmas gifts of fine display —
‘Twill take a Ten for him.
Then, there’s the neighbor on my left,
The ditto on my right;
They scarcely ever speak to me,
But, if I send no gifts, you see,
They’ll say that I am tight.
And, for that horde of Bradley Kids,
That come and hang around,
And hint for quarters and for dimes
(They never come at other times),
Three dollars wont go round.
And so it goes, a dozen more
Blackmail me Christmas Day,
They take the money that should go
For home folks and the friends I know,
Because I cant say, “Nay.”
