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Light Unlocked: Christmas Card Poems
A delightful anthology of poems sent by many contemporary writers as Christmas cards.
- GenresPoetry
96 pages, Hardcover
First published October 3, 2005
15 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Crossley-Holland
207 books243 followersKevin Crossley-Holland is an English poet and prize-winning author for children. His books include Waterslain Angels, a detective story set in north Norfolk in 1955, and Moored Man: A Cycle of North Norfolk Poems; Gatty's Tale, a medieval pilgrimage novel; and the Arthur trilogy (The Seeing Stone, At the Crossing-Places and King of the Middle March), which combines historical fiction with the retelling of Arthurian legend.
The Seeing Stone won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award and the Smarties Prize Bronze Medal. The Arthur trilogy has won worldwide critical acclaim and has been translated into 21 languages.
Crossley-Holland has translated Beowulf from the Anglo-Saxon, and his retellings of traditional tales include The Penguin Book of Norse Myths and British Folk Tales (reissued as The Magic Lands). His collaborations with composers include two operas with Nicola Lefanu ("The Green Children" and "The Wildman") and one with Rupert Bawden, "The Sailor’s Tale"; song cycles with Sir Arthur Bliss and William Mathias; and a carol with Stephen Paulus for King’s College, Cambridge. His play, The Wuffings, (co-authored with Ivan Cutting) was produced by Eastern Angles in 1997.
He often lectures abroad on behalf of the British Council, regularly leads sessions for teachers and librarians, and visits primary and secondary schools. He offers poetry and prose workshops and talks on the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, King Arthur, heroines and heroes, and myth, legend and folk-tale.
After seven years teaching in Minnesota, where he held an Endowed Chair in the Humanities, Kevin Crossley-Holland returned to the north Norfolk coast in East Anglia, where he now lives.
He has a Minnesotan wife, Linda, two sons (Kieran and Dominic) and two daughters (Oenone and Eleanor). He is an Honorary Fellow of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, a patron of the Society of Storytelling and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
The Seeing Stone won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award and the Smarties Prize Bronze Medal. The Arthur trilogy has won worldwide critical acclaim and has been translated into 21 languages.
Crossley-Holland has translated Beowulf from the Anglo-Saxon, and his retellings of traditional tales include The Penguin Book of Norse Myths and British Folk Tales (reissued as The Magic Lands). His collaborations with composers include two operas with Nicola Lefanu ("The Green Children" and "The Wildman") and one with Rupert Bawden, "The Sailor’s Tale"; song cycles with Sir Arthur Bliss and William Mathias; and a carol with Stephen Paulus for King’s College, Cambridge. His play, The Wuffings, (co-authored with Ivan Cutting) was produced by Eastern Angles in 1997.
He often lectures abroad on behalf of the British Council, regularly leads sessions for teachers and librarians, and visits primary and secondary schools. He offers poetry and prose workshops and talks on the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, King Arthur, heroines and heroes, and myth, legend and folk-tale.
After seven years teaching in Minnesota, where he held an Endowed Chair in the Humanities, Kevin Crossley-Holland returned to the north Norfolk coast in East Anglia, where he now lives.
He has a Minnesotan wife, Linda, two sons (Kieran and Dominic) and two daughters (Oenone and Eleanor). He is an Honorary Fellow of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, a patron of the Society of Storytelling and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 23, 2025
Ten stars!
This collection is fantastic. I don’t often read poetry books and am only familiar with two of the authors—Seamus Heaney and George Mackay Brown. The poems are either 20th or 21st century and I believe all from British isles including Northern Ireland. No biographical information. These little poems were written and sent to friends during the Christmas season. Not all are strictly Christmas themes but often winter or nature.
I can’t begin to say how enthusiastic I feel about these. Light Unlocked would make a fabulous gift. Small in size with gold foil endpaper. My gift to me this year!
This collection is fantastic. I don’t often read poetry books and am only familiar with two of the authors—Seamus Heaney and George Mackay Brown. The poems are either 20th or 21st century and I believe all from British isles including Northern Ireland. No biographical information. These little poems were written and sent to friends during the Christmas season. Not all are strictly Christmas themes but often winter or nature.
I can’t begin to say how enthusiastic I feel about these. Light Unlocked would make a fabulous gift. Small in size with gold foil endpaper. My gift to me this year!
November 4, 2015
An unexpected collection, intelligent and stirring to contemplation and a readying of the heart for the season. Not the usual fare, as the editors Kevin Crossley-Holland and Lawrence Sail explain in their short foreword--for so much of Christmas verse is familiar and ground well-worked through the ages. That's not to say there is not the usual imagery in this verse--shepherds and stables, light and snow. But there is the surprisingly ordinary-made-extraordinary too: birds and gardeners, rosé wine, beagles and bluebells. The images hearken cheer, miracles, and gifts. Among the loveliest chestnuts in these eighty poems are "Christmas" by Bernard O'Donoghue, "Dawn" by Richard Burns, "The Thorn" by Helen Dunmore; and the editors' own work--"The Glimmering" by Lawrence Sail, and "The Heart-in-Waiting" by Kevin Crossley-Holland. The engravings by John Lawrence are a lovely complement that stir the imagination: a winter's hare jumping over a full moon, angels that bring the Blessed Mary a tulip or watch over angels with boughs of fir and olive; an owl, a bowl of hyacinths, a glass of starry winter's cheer, the cross-hung Christ. The work is well-paced for reading several poems in one sitting some evening by the fire or furnace, yet also perfect for dipping into here and there. Still, be warned: One reading will entice you to another till you are turning the pages, brought through the Christmas season to the new year, where the yard door is left open, as John Burnside writes in "Peredelkino," for "the gift/of elsewhere."
December 26, 2021
Be forewarned that many of the poems included are actually not Christmas themed. If you are expecting them all to be about Christmas (which would be a logical assumption based on the title) you may be disappointed. I’d say maybe about 1/2 were Christmas related, and (as with any anthology) not all of them were stellar. However, the ones I enjoyed I really enjoyed - even the ones that had nothing to do with Christmas!
January 8, 2026
This book rests on a wonderful idea - it's a collection of poems by contemporary poets, which were sent in Christmas cards. Some of the poems cover religious themes. Others touch upon the spiritual more lightly, whilst others talk of nature and winter.
A few of the poets chosen, like Roger McGough, do their own thing with gusto.
The Dada Christmas Catalogue.
Chocolate comb
Can-of-worms opener
Non-stick frying pan
Two sticky frying pans
Book end
Abrasive partridges
Inflatable fridge
Set of nervous door handles
Overnight tea-bag
Instant coffee table
Pair of non-secateurs
Mobile phone-booth
Underwater ashtray
13 amp bath plug
Pair of socks, identical but for the colour
Box of Tunisian (past their sell-by) dates
See-through elastoplasts
Nasal floss (unwaxed)
Contact lens adhesive
Canteen of magnetic cutlery
Three-way mirror
Not a pipe.
Another couple of poems that I particularly enjoyed were:
News From Norfolk by Caroline Gilfillan
The arrowhead of geese
labours
into the wind as they
tug on their
rope of sky
honking as they go.
One falls to feed
then another
then a third
the flock tumbling
like
fridge alphabet letters
or a broken string
of pearls.
And Christmas, by Bernard O'Donoghue
Despite the forecast's promise,
It didn't snow that night;
But in the morning, flakes began
To glide all right.
Not enough to cover roads
Or even hide the grass;
But enough to change the light.
All in all I found this collection a Marmite-y experience. Whilst I loved some of the poems, there were also quite a lot of them that didn't move me at all. However it's a slim volume of work, and I loved the premise of the book - the fact these poems had actually been sent in Christmas cards. It is also charmingly illustrated with engravings by John Lawrence. I was glad to have read it and I think it would make a great Christmas present for the right person.
A few of the poets chosen, like Roger McGough, do their own thing with gusto.
The Dada Christmas Catalogue.
Chocolate comb
Can-of-worms opener
Non-stick frying pan
Two sticky frying pans
Book end
Abrasive partridges
Inflatable fridge
Set of nervous door handles
Overnight tea-bag
Instant coffee table
Pair of non-secateurs
Mobile phone-booth
Underwater ashtray
13 amp bath plug
Pair of socks, identical but for the colour
Box of Tunisian (past their sell-by) dates
See-through elastoplasts
Nasal floss (unwaxed)
Contact lens adhesive
Canteen of magnetic cutlery
Three-way mirror
Not a pipe.
Another couple of poems that I particularly enjoyed were:
News From Norfolk by Caroline Gilfillan
The arrowhead of geese
labours
into the wind as they
tug on their
rope of sky
honking as they go.
One falls to feed
then another
then a third
the flock tumbling
like
fridge alphabet letters
or a broken string
of pearls.
And Christmas, by Bernard O'Donoghue
Despite the forecast's promise,
It didn't snow that night;
But in the morning, flakes began
To glide all right.
Not enough to cover roads
Or even hide the grass;
But enough to change the light.
All in all I found this collection a Marmite-y experience. Whilst I loved some of the poems, there were also quite a lot of them that didn't move me at all. However it's a slim volume of work, and I loved the premise of the book - the fact these poems had actually been sent in Christmas cards. It is also charmingly illustrated with engravings by John Lawrence. I was glad to have read it and I think it would make a great Christmas present for the right person.
December 21, 2025
It wasn't bad but not what I expected.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews