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The Christmas Poems
For a decade, while she was Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy gifted her thousands of readers an illustrated poem every Christmas, transporting them in one year to a seventeenth-century festival on the frozen Thames, in another to Western Front to witness the famous 1914 truce, then to a sweet winter’s night in the South of France with Pablo Picasso and his small dog.
Christmas Poems showcases Duffy’s bold and innovative voice, alongside gorgeous artwork from Rob Ryan, David De Las Heras and Lara Hawthorne, amongst others. These ten much-loved poems are gathered together for the first time in this compendium to make a perfect gift for old friends celebrating a decade’s tradition or those experiencing the magic of Duffy’s festive verse for the first time.
Christmas Poems showcases Duffy’s bold and innovative voice, alongside gorgeous artwork from Rob Ryan, David De Las Heras and Lara Hawthorne, amongst others. These ten much-loved poems are gathered together for the first time in this compendium to make a perfect gift for old friends celebrating a decade’s tradition or those experiencing the magic of Duffy’s festive verse for the first time.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published February 15, 2022
6 people are currently reading
159 people want to read
About the author
Carol Ann Duffy
174 books739 followersDame Carol Ann Duffy, DBE, FRSL is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Britain's Poet Laureate in May 2009.
She is the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly LGBT person to hold this position.
Her collections include Standing Female Nude (1985), winner of a Scottish Arts Council Award; Selling Manhattan (1987), which won a Somerset Maugham Award; Mean Time (1993), which won the Whitbread Poetry Award; and Rapture (2005), winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize.
Her poems address issues such as oppression, gender, and violence, in an accessible language that has made them popular in schools.
She is the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly LGBT person to hold this position.
Her collections include Standing Female Nude (1985), winner of a Scottish Arts Council Award; Selling Manhattan (1987), which won a Somerset Maugham Award; Mean Time (1993), which won the Whitbread Poetry Award; and Rapture (2005), winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize.
Her poems address issues such as oppression, gender, and violence, in an accessible language that has made them popular in schools.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 23, 2021
A beautiful collection of Carol Ann Duffy's Christmas poems from the 10 years she was Poet Laurette, exclusively for independent book stores. I read this like an advent calendar over the past 10 days, and here are my thoughts.
Day One - Mrs Scrooge: a sweet read about the effect one person can have on the world. All the global warming content was a bit sad for a Christmas poem, but it did make me feel all warm and cosy.
Day Two - Another Night Before Christmas: I didn't love this one. It was a modern retelling, but lacked the magic and childlike wonder of Christmas Eve.
Day Three - The Christmas Truce: about the famous day of peace in WW1 where soldiers played football on Christmas day. This poem balanced the opposites of peace during war well, making me feel both happy and sad. The illustrations in this one are absolutely beautiful.
Day Four - Wenceslas: not a huge fan of this one, but that may be largely due to the fact I don't eat meat and 80% of it describes a monstrosity of a pie.
Day Five - Bethlehem: the illustrations of this one are absolutely stunning. I enjoyed the focus on the culture of the city rather than the retelling of the story! I feel it's quite often white washed, so this was a refreshing change.
Day Six - Dorothy Wordsworth's Christmas Birthday: a nice poem but the star of the show of this one is the illustrations!!! I want them framed.
Day Seven - The Wren-Boys: about the Christmas season in a small town with the wren connecting the stories. I loved this! Felt like people watching.
Day Eight - The King of Christmas: a bored Baron hires a King of 'Misrule' for the 12 days before Christmas. Chaos and ridiculousness follows, but they all have a fun time. There are some incredible illustrations in this, and it is a funny poem!
Day Nine - Pablo Picasso's Noel: I just didn't get this one. It's about Picasso spending Christmas eve in a small French town, but did not feel at all Christmassy. The illustrations were gorgeous though!
Day Ten - Frost Fair: I didn't like this one at all. A morbid last poem I think. I was looking forward to this as I am fascinated by the old fairs on the frozen Thames, but it was all tinged with darkness. Not super festive.
Overall, a lovely collection! Some hits and some misses, which I often find with Duffy's poetry. 3.75
Day One - Mrs Scrooge: a sweet read about the effect one person can have on the world. All the global warming content was a bit sad for a Christmas poem, but it did make me feel all warm and cosy.
Day Two - Another Night Before Christmas: I didn't love this one. It was a modern retelling, but lacked the magic and childlike wonder of Christmas Eve.
Day Three - The Christmas Truce: about the famous day of peace in WW1 where soldiers played football on Christmas day. This poem balanced the opposites of peace during war well, making me feel both happy and sad. The illustrations in this one are absolutely beautiful.
Day Four - Wenceslas: not a huge fan of this one, but that may be largely due to the fact I don't eat meat and 80% of it describes a monstrosity of a pie.
Day Five - Bethlehem: the illustrations of this one are absolutely stunning. I enjoyed the focus on the culture of the city rather than the retelling of the story! I feel it's quite often white washed, so this was a refreshing change.
Day Six - Dorothy Wordsworth's Christmas Birthday: a nice poem but the star of the show of this one is the illustrations!!! I want them framed.
Day Seven - The Wren-Boys: about the Christmas season in a small town with the wren connecting the stories. I loved this! Felt like people watching.
Day Eight - The King of Christmas: a bored Baron hires a King of 'Misrule' for the 12 days before Christmas. Chaos and ridiculousness follows, but they all have a fun time. There are some incredible illustrations in this, and it is a funny poem!
Day Nine - Pablo Picasso's Noel: I just didn't get this one. It's about Picasso spending Christmas eve in a small French town, but did not feel at all Christmassy. The illustrations were gorgeous though!
Day Ten - Frost Fair: I didn't like this one at all. A morbid last poem I think. I was looking forward to this as I am fascinated by the old fairs on the frozen Thames, but it was all tinged with darkness. Not super festive.
Overall, a lovely collection! Some hits and some misses, which I often find with Duffy's poetry. 3.75
December 25, 2024
10 poems by Carol Ann Duffy accompanied by lots of beautiful illustrations by 10 different illustrators. I really enjoyed this book.
—————————
Some fragments:
Also there,
out where the frozen stream
lay nailed to the ground,
was a prayer
drifting as human breath,
as the ghost of words,
in a dark wood,
yearning to be
Something
Understood
(From the poem: Wenceslas)
This wasn’t exactly my favourite poem, but it had some fragments I really liked.
———
Now Willie Spear, anarchic fellow, in pantaloons
of violent yellow, had done his share of poaching,
wenching, any villainy you care to mention…
and he stuck his tongue — bean-gleam, drool —
in the Baron’s face. ‘All bow! All kneel! My Lord’s a fool!
Twelve days and nights I am Lord of Misrule!’
…..
Then William sent out far and wide
to scour the snowy countryside for poets, astrologers,
fools, magicians; gave them all Official Positions,
gorgeous robes, coin-plump purses; commissioned
rude and filthy verses; made No-marks famous;
Had the Baron’s horoscope cast on Uranus.
(From the poem: The King of Christmas)
I laughed so hard reading this one aloud. I loved the rhythm, the rhyme and most importantly: the mischief!
———
The old year, a tear in the eye of time;
frost on the blackthorn, the ditches glamorous
with rime; on the inbreath of air,
The long, thoughtful pause before snow.
(From the poem: The Wren-Boys)
—————————
Some fragments:
Also there,
out where the frozen stream
lay nailed to the ground,
was a prayer
drifting as human breath,
as the ghost of words,
in a dark wood,
yearning to be
Something
Understood
(From the poem: Wenceslas)
This wasn’t exactly my favourite poem, but it had some fragments I really liked.
———
Now Willie Spear, anarchic fellow, in pantaloons
of violent yellow, had done his share of poaching,
wenching, any villainy you care to mention…
and he stuck his tongue — bean-gleam, drool —
in the Baron’s face. ‘All bow! All kneel! My Lord’s a fool!
Twelve days and nights I am Lord of Misrule!’
…..
Then William sent out far and wide
to scour the snowy countryside for poets, astrologers,
fools, magicians; gave them all Official Positions,
gorgeous robes, coin-plump purses; commissioned
rude and filthy verses; made No-marks famous;
Had the Baron’s horoscope cast on Uranus.
(From the poem: The King of Christmas)
I laughed so hard reading this one aloud. I loved the rhythm, the rhyme and most importantly: the mischief!
———
The old year, a tear in the eye of time;
frost on the blackthorn, the ditches glamorous
with rime; on the inbreath of air,
The long, thoughtful pause before snow.
(From the poem: The Wren-Boys)
December 29, 2021
A beautiful book bringing together the works of Carol Ann Duffy from her time as Poet Laureate, for the first time ever. A decade, ten years of much-loved poems alongside beautiful illustrations - this is a book that will be brought out again and again over the Winter period. As is the case with a lot of poetry, there will be favourites amongst this collection and ones that don't speak to you as much. This was a mixed book for me with lots of beautiful writing but the occasional piece that I didn't enjoy quite as much.
December 24, 2024
Carol Ann Duffy writes a Christmas themed poem every year, this is a collection of ten of them together. As with all poetry collections there are some that stand out more than others and I suspect with each reading I may well have a different favourite. The illustrations are what really make the book in this case, especially the winter fare
January 2, 2024
Feels very odd to have my first read of the year be a Christmas book as Christmas to me is so synonymous with the end of the year but I was part way through this and didn't want to leave it in my 'currently reading' pile until the next festive season so... here we are.
December 15, 2025
Lovely selections of Christmas stories, some that rhyme and some that don't. I picked up this book in a charity shop in London for only £2. Just looking at the wonderful cover is worth more than that. It contains some lovely artwork as well, so I say money well spent.
Might make it a Christmas tradition to read through this book before going to bed.
Might make it a Christmas tradition to read through this book before going to bed.
December 31, 2021
I was really moved by those poems. Some of them are retellings of known stories (such as Dicken's A Christmas Carol or the famous Christmas truce of 1914), others conjure famous people like Dorothy Wordsworth or Pablo Picasso. My favorite, Another Night Before Christmas, follows a little girl who decides to stay up all night because she wants to know whether Santa does exist. Who has never thought of doing that as a child? It's a beautiful, sweet and heartwarming poem.
The writing is gorgeous, musical, spellbinding. Each poem is illustrated by a different illustrator, which reinforces the impression of stepping into a different universe every time we move from one story to the next. I fell in love with the pictures in the poem Dorothy Wordsworth's Christmas Birthday, but I have one big regret: I looked everywhere but no illustrator is credited anywhere in the book. That's a shame, and I hope the publisher will remedy to that next time the book goes to print.
All in all, this is a really beautiful book. I enjoyed it immensely and will read it again on many Christmases to come!
The writing is gorgeous, musical, spellbinding. Each poem is illustrated by a different illustrator, which reinforces the impression of stepping into a different universe every time we move from one story to the next. I fell in love with the pictures in the poem Dorothy Wordsworth's Christmas Birthday, but I have one big regret: I looked everywhere but no illustrator is credited anywhere in the book. That's a shame, and I hope the publisher will remedy to that next time the book goes to print.
All in all, this is a really beautiful book. I enjoyed it immensely and will read it again on many Christmases to come!
December 28, 2022
Carol Ann Duffy is my favourite living poet, so I'm delighted to own this beautiful book that collects ten years' worth of her Christmas poems, published annually during her tenure as Britain's poet laureate. The illustrations that accompany each poem are lovely, the cover design is wonderfully festive and richly detailed, and the poems themselves are beautifully presented. In terms of quality, they are a bit of a mixed bag: "Dorothy Wordsworth's Christmas Birthday" and "The Christmas Truce" showcase Duffy's considerable talents particularly well, while "Mrs. Scrooge" and "Another Night before Christmas" are joyous but fairly superficial.
Duffy has an incredible eye (and ear) for vivid imagery and metaphor, often combining words in unexpected but invariably striking ways, and the aural richness of her language makes for a perfectly immersive reading experience. This is a collection to re-read every Christmas.
Duffy has an incredible eye (and ear) for vivid imagery and metaphor, often combining words in unexpected but invariably striking ways, and the aural richness of her language makes for a perfectly immersive reading experience. This is a collection to re-read every Christmas.
December 24, 2022
3.5 stars
A nice collection of Carol Ann Duffy’s Christmas Poems. Some I liked more than others but the book was beautifully presented in a nice size with gorgeous illustrations matching the text. Some of this stories felt just that “stories” others were retellings so it didn’t have the feel of traditional poetry. When read slowly and aloud to savour the words there was definitely a beautiful flow and the imagery was incredible. I think this is a collection that would benefit from multiple rereads to get the full appreciation of the language used rather than the stories that were told.
A nice collection of Carol Ann Duffy’s Christmas Poems. Some I liked more than others but the book was beautifully presented in a nice size with gorgeous illustrations matching the text. Some of this stories felt just that “stories” others were retellings so it didn’t have the feel of traditional poetry. When read slowly and aloud to savour the words there was definitely a beautiful flow and the imagery was incredible. I think this is a collection that would benefit from multiple rereads to get the full appreciation of the language used rather than the stories that were told.
January 17, 2023
This was a beautiful anthology - I love Duffy’s poems and these were no exception, with the Christmas Truce as a particularly fantastic one. The illustrations were absolutely stunning and the whole design of the book is gorgeous.
December 28, 2022
**3.5 Stars**
December 31, 2022
A beautiful book to read during Christmas 🎄 🎅😃
December 17, 2023
One or two nice poems (particularly the Another Night before Christmas and the one about the truce during World War 1 or 2) but didn't find the rest of them made much sense
Want to read
November 30, 2024Recommended by Ruby Granger
December 10, 2024
*3.5 - a stunningly put together collection, the poetry just wasn’t for me, with the exception of one or two.
December 30, 2021
Carol Ann Duffy was the first woman to hold the title Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 2009-2019. Each Christmas season for ten years, she produced a Christmas-themed poem which was published as a small book. This volume includes all ten poems. The illustrations are stunning, and the volume is gorgeous.
My personal favorite is The Wren-Boys, a poem about the Irish tradition on December 26th, St. Stephen's Day, of hunting the wren. Duffy's Scottish parents are both of Irish Catholic descent. St. Stephen's Day is known as Boxing Day in the UK. Many in Ireland lament that St. Stephen's Day has been replaced in many parts of the country with Boxing Day, and the old tradition is disappearing.
How the Wren Became the King of all Birds https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/12...
My personal favorite is The Wren-Boys, a poem about the Irish tradition on December 26th, St. Stephen's Day, of hunting the wren. Duffy's Scottish parents are both of Irish Catholic descent. St. Stephen's Day is known as Boxing Day in the UK. Many in Ireland lament that St. Stephen's Day has been replaced in many parts of the country with Boxing Day, and the old tradition is disappearing.
How the Wren Became the King of all Birds https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/12...
December 26, 2024
Beautiful book of Christmas poems. They will be read every year. Just finished my re-read and once again struck by how beautiful this book is.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews