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Evening Snow at Kanbara, from the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō”, Utagawa Hiroshige, ca. 1833–34.

Christmas Eve

Christmas has a darkness,
Brighter than the blazing noon,
Christmas has a chillness
Warmer than the heat of June,
Christmas has a beauty
Lovelier than the world can show:
For Christmas brings us Jesus,
Brought for us so low.

Earth strike up your music,
Birds that sing and bells that ring;
Heaven has answering music
For all angels soon to sing:
Earth put on your whitest
Bridal robe of spotless snow:
For Christmas brings us Jesus,
Brought for us so low.

Christina Rossetti, The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti, MacMillan and Co. 1904.