I travelled far across the sea, and now I am a Christmas tree.
Notes from this book: "The Christmas Pine is based on a true story. It celebrates a special tradition that stretches back over seventy years. Every year since 1947, the Mayor of Oslo in Norway presents the British people with a spectacular Christmas tree. The pine tree is a symbol of peace and friendship: a thank you for the UK's support during World War II. "
"Each year, the UK Poetry Society asks a poet to write a poem to welcome the tree." Julia Donaldson wrote this poem in 2020. It is a beautiful poem as you would expect but this book is made extra special by the scrumptious illustrations by the Norwegian illustrator Victoria Sandøy. If you are looking to add a new Christmas book to your collection I do recommend The Christmas Pine.
You can see some children from a London Primary school performing the poem.
Previous poets include Clare Pollard, Joseph Coelho, A.F. Harrold, Julia Copus, Ian McMillan, Liz Lochhead and Kevin Crossley-Holland.
You can see children performing the 2021 poem written by Sinead Morrissey.
They found me high
above the breathing canopy,
tightjacketed prodigy—
interstellar silence
laced through my hair
and frost like a tapestry
nailed to my door.
Such absolute dark
above my tippy-top
spangled crown,
ballooning sky-shot
Arctic greens draped
winter’s finest shawl
about my shoulders.
Unstable starship
of the planet,
your lungs are my fingers—
their feather-thin million
branching endings:
tiny-bright tiny-light
redeemers of air.
Spectacular child
in the barn, who fell
like a comet or windfall,
I also attend—
I also stand, in all
my pine-needle finery,
and shine.
And in this video the children read the poem by Joseph Coelho and then they talk about the tradition of sending the tree from Norway.
Here is the French edition of this book:
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