"If I was God, mamma dear,
I’d have Christmas all the year,
All the summers and the springs
We’d be giving Christmas things,
Everybody feeling good
Just as if they understood
Every day was Christmas day. —
Tell me, why can’t Christmas stay?"

Why not, why not—let them tell
O’er whose heads the Christmas bell,
On whose brow the Christmas snow
Sprinkled forty years ago;
On whose heart and in whose mind
Are the burdens of mankind,
For the coming long delayed,
Of the Christmas King have prayed;
Let them answer, best they may
"Mamma, why don’t Christmas stay?"

Ye, who for the rights of men
Faced the lions in their den;
Who to worship Father’s God
Through the wilderness have trod,
Who in every clime and age
Tasted persecution’s rage,
Who your open bosoms set
‘Gainst the shot and bayonet,
And for an enslaved race
Dwelt with death in prison place
Tell the child, nor say him nay—
"Why don’t Christmas always stay?"

Ye who on the mountain height
Look toward the dawning light,
Strong in heart and pure in lips
Open your Apocalypse.
Write the new Apostles’ Creed
In the words that children need,
Read the riddle children say,—
"Mamma, why don’t Christmas stay?"

"When in childlike faith and trust,
"Love is lifted from the dust,
"When in little daily deeds
"We shall write our only creeds,
When as in Judean skies
"Truth transfigured shall arise,
"When the brotherhood of men
"Shall in Christ be born again—
"Mothers shall to children say
"Christmas time has come to stay."

Slumber on, Oh! flaxen head,
Sleeping in your trundle bed,
From your dreams I still shall hear
I’d have Christmas all the year,
"All the summers and the springs
"Still be giving Christmas things."
Every heart shall better be
For the dream that's dreamed by thee
Till in waking thou shalt say,—
"Christmas time has come to stay."