Christmas Father

December in the dust.

Hammanskraal heat

And one grubby Christmas decoration

Long way away from Sandtons sparkle.

Do reindeer even know Hammanskraal?

Christmas Father can use donkeys here, if he comes.

We'll hear their clatter on the corrugated iron!

But we'll stay in bed tjoeps quiet

Pretending to be asleep, to not scare them.

We don't have a Christmas tree for presents.

But we have a tree outside in the yard.

 That's better, it's a shade tree

It has 84 different names from

The 84 children here.

We wrote in them, the names, in the dust with our feet.

 so you know who we are.

Use that tree, donkeys, Christmas Father. Its big you can

See it from faaar. And

We won't clutter it with presents before you

are here. We'll leave space.

We don't have mince pies but we've got Bakers Choice, you can have...

... The best ones, the strawberry wafers, we'll

Leave you one! Two! Ok, one and a half. We are many here, everyone wants.

And for the donkeys we don't have carrots.

We have cabbage

They look rotten but

just peel

The outer leaves away. Anyway

Donkeys aren't fussy, sies, they

Must be happy you need to use them here!

So, Christmas Father, for Christmas can I

Have a swimming pool?

We have such a big yard here

And its nothing just dust!

Imagine 84 of us splash splash splash!

No, maybe it would get dirty and we'll have to clean. And the water would get finished. And plus what if the small small ones fell in?

Can I have a bed of my own?

We are 16 in this room you

Know!

No, maybe... Nights

Are scary sometimes and then being together tighttight is nice like, even

The snoring...

And I couldn't be the only one with my own bed.

We would need 84 beds and then

We would be sleeping in the yard!

So maybe, Christmas Father, I'll just ask

You something easy?

Can you light our Tree?

Maybe do it secretly, so I can

Just see it if I close my eyes

Like that!

It's lighting up our names,

What we wrote in the dust.

December in the dust.

Hammanskraal heat

And one shining Christmas tree

Brighter than all Sandtons sparkle