posted 12-24-2018 10:51 AM               

T'was the night before Christmas and up on the Moon,
The mission near ending, I thought much too soon;

The suits were both stowed for a long lunar nap,
When at the main hatch, we both heard a tap;

Outside the window there seemed clouds of smoke,
I then thought Houston was playing a joke;

We suited up quickly, depressed, then went out,
What we saw then made both of us shout;

We knew that this story folks would always refute,
But there were reindeer, each wearing a space suit;

Santa stepped down, looking really quite keen,
Wearing the largest EVA suit that we'd ever seen;

He said that, "Earth's children will be seeing me soon,
I thought I'd start here, with you guys on the Moon."

He said, "You've both been two really good boys,
But when you took off, man, what a noise."

He said not to worry about our third guy above,
The Command Module Pilot would, too, share the love;

"I've got presents for all," he said with a smile,
As he dug through that huge pressurized pile;

He gave us two boxes, each wrapped in a bow,
And admitted that he preferred Moon dust to snow;

Our headsets both crackled as our good CAPCOM cried,
"Our computers indicate you're standing outside!"

As Santa was heading to his sleigh's covered dome,
We both wondered how we'd explain this back home;

The countdown for reindeer began really quick,
And his liftoff from the surface, to us, looked quite slick;

We heard him sign off as he launched out of sight,
"Merry Christmas to all, and you're 'GO' for good night!"