My Christmas poem for 2025
"At the Christmas concert"
Each year I like to write a poem to capture some sense of the wonder or the mystery of Christmas. Perhaps look, at new angles or with the angels, at the familiar parts of this annual tradition and see if I can find something fresh.
I always do. Not because I’m clever. But because Christmas and the Spirit behind it are endlessly new and renewing.
I’m not always sure how it’ll come to me, or when. So it was with some surprise that the idea for this year’s poem started to reveal itself at my daughter’s Christmas concert. I was touched by the enthusiasm—unrestrained and self-giving—on display in the sea of kids who sang their hearts out.
I hope you enjoy the poem and I wish you and yours every blessing and much peace this Christmas.
~ AK
At the Christmas concert
Christmas 2025
As we craned our necks poked our heads over the sea of families dutifully scanning for their little loved one on the stage we weren’t just squinting across a crowded gymnasium It took me a moment to understand from where I sat on the fold-out plastic chairs that put unfamiliar pressure on my lower lumbar that I was squinting across time, generations Did anyone else see under the bright spotlights, the small threads sewn into the hems of Christmas dresses with faux fur necks and peplum waists the belt loops of corduroy pants? Colourful cotton and silk fibres twisted carefully together into long strands a network of threads from the stage along the gymnasium floor that wove throughout the aisles to each row in the auditorium As the voices of children sang unselfconsciously like the loudest angel choir–a cacophony of tones and praise, words heralded by heavenly host foretold by prophets, uttered by exiles in the quiet and clamorous moments of history it was then I noticed the thread sewn into the hem of my own jeans It could have easily been confused for an untied shoelace or a length of tinsel, but when I reached down it grabbed hold of me These stories tether us to heaven, to each other these songs we sing, faith like little children in our hearts, are the truest things
© 2025 Andrew Kooman



Lovely! Thank you, Andrew! Just had a short note from your aunt Linda with an update of her year. I was sorry to hear of Jack's passing. Another hole left in another heart. But God is the God of all comfort.
I imagine you were once on such a stage😊