Song For A Contemporary Nativity Set

Have yourself a minimalist Christmas
with a set of blocks
each a single color and an oblong box

Have yourself a geometric Christmas
It’s a tidy plan
As if they were painted like a Mondrian

Bet you knew
that our Lady’s blue
while Saint Joseph’s all in brown
Deeper shades from the Orient
tell you Magi are in town.

Soon it will be copied by IKEA
Yuletide can be blah:
Angels without mouths can’t sing a Gloria.
But have yourself a minimalist Christmas, brah.

On that night
Was our Savior white?
Was the shepherd grubby gray?
In that box
there’s no lamb or ox
but the Pope says that’s okay

If your kids see this on Christmas morning
sure they’re gonna cry
look at you in tears and ask you, Daddy, why?

So let’s just kiss this minimalist Christmas ‘bye


(A hat tip to Fr. Bryce Sibley for letting me know about this.)