by Henry Lang Jenkinson

God of a Thousand Christmas Gifts,
For any hatred we have thought
And any evil we have taught
Or any misery we have wrought,
Forgive us, now.

God of a Thousand Christmas Trees,
If, thro’ the year, the wrong held sway,
And better deeds were cast away,
We pray Thee, on thy Holy Day,
Forgive us, now.

God of a Thousand Holidays,
We humbly ask that we be sent
A spirit true to good intent,
So Gifts and Goodness may be blent …
God of the Yule Tide, reign.

Henry Lang Jenkinson recruited and led a company of black volunteers from Newark in the Spanish-American War. After service in the Philippines he was engaged in various Newark businesses before joining an artist colony near Woodstock, New York, where he had a metalworking studio.

This poem appeared in The Newarker for February 1916.