Sad Christmas Love Poems

For some Christmas is a time of great sadness, rather than joy. If you've lost a loved one, or split up from a partner, and find yourself lonely and desolate at Christmas, you'll find much to console you in the romantic trials and tribulations of others, which are sensitively portrayed in Paul's collection of sad Christmas love poems.

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Bereaved and Bereft

A poem about the overwhelming feeling of loneliness that strikes those who have lost a loved one. Company, friends, family are no consolation when one has lost one's soul mate, with the pain is most acute amid the jollity of Christmas celebrations.

The loss of a loved one is felt most keenly at Christmas by the surviving partner and all the well meaning gestures of others can do nothing to assuage the grief.

Author

Christmas Is The Hardest Time

Christmas is the hardest time
When in the bosom of kith and kin
Amidst the exited chatter
And rustle of discarded paper
Punctuated by the joyous laughter of children
And over exited grown ups
I made all the right noises
As I wore my painful smile
I opened my presents when prompted
“Oh isn’t that lovely” I cooed
“That’s just what I wanted” I lied
But what I actually wanted
Was to be somewhere else
Where there was no need of false delight
Or insincere thankful exclamations
Anywhere else but there
They are well meaning souls
Who thought to help me
By including my in their joyous celebrations
But they don’t understand my grief
Or the empty ache of a shattered heart
Each innocent Christmas ritual cut me like a knife
The familiar songs, once loved, now hurt
And each merry Christmas was a fresh cut
Losing you, my partner in life
Was like having a conjoined twin cut away
And among that happy crowd
My loneliness was most keenly felt
When all the excitement died away
I sat in silent contemplation
When sweet memories of happier days
Flooded into my mind to torture me
I hide it from the crowd
Keeping the pain and sorrow within
But so intertwined were our lives
I am left incomplete
I am in torment every day for the want of you
But Christmas is the hardest time

Gloomy Self-Absorption

A poem about loss and loneliness at Christmas time which is strangely ambiguous as to whether slipping away means separation or death.

The pain of separation at Christmas leads the author into a period of gloomy self-absorption.

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Christmas Folly Revisited

I have no need of jollity
Or happy yuletide fare
I have no Christmas gift to wrap
There’s no one here to share

I have no time for Christmas
Just the time to reminisce
I have no need of mistletoe
Because she’s not here to kiss

So I will spend the time alone
On a lonely Christmas day
But I have no need of sympathy
Because I let her slip away

Pull Yourself Together

Another sad Christmas poem, although this time with a rather more uplifting message that the company of friends or family can see you through the darkest of days.

The joyous company of others is seldom enough to lift one from the depths of despair, but it might be worth a punt.

Author

Put Aside Your Sadness

Put aside your sadness
Lose yourself in the madness
That is Christmas,
Come spend it with us
Come and you will see
That with cherished company
The season will be a little brighter
And the weight on your heart a little lighter

Fatherless Christmas

A widow with young children struggles to sustain herself and retain her countenance during a family Christmas without her beloved Harry.

A widow experiencing her first Christmas 6 months after the death of her husband feels the pain of her loss, but has to put on a brave face for the sake of her young children.

Author

Christmas Without Harry

It was early when the children woke up
With their squeals of joy and delight
They hadn’t woken me though
I’d been awake half the night

Christmas held no joy for me this year
I was not looking forward to the day
And I always loved Christmas
This year I didn’t want to play

It was the first Christmas since I lost Harry
And each moment was a fresh agony
Everything we used to do together
Now had to be done by me

When you are the perfect partnership
It’s so hard when you lose one of the team
He was the cream cheese on my bagel,
I was the coffee to his cream

Its six months since he was taken from me
But the wound has barely healed
It takes just the slightest remembrance
And a fresh scar is then revealed

The children have all adjusted well
I’m so proud of the way they’ve coped
They’ve gotten on with their lives
And not sat around and moped

I’ve lain awake most of the night
Reliving Christmases gone by
I laughed at all the happy memories
And then the laughter turned to cries

It was going to be a difficult day to bear
And I would be glad when it was done
But I didn’t want to be a Grinch
And pour water on the children’s fun

Having Christmas without Harry
Was like having an undecorated tree
He was my best friend and soul mate
He was just everything to me

So for the kid’s sake I had to grin and bear it
Put on a brave face, smiled through the pain
I thought it would never end but end it did
And it won’t be that hard again

Lost and Lonely

Attending a Christmas Eve party, the protagonist feel lost, lonely and regrets the love that he let go.

A slightly ambiguous poem in so far as it's not clear whether the protagonist's lonely Christmas in prospect is the result of losing or splitting up with a partner.

Author

Christmas Folly

Merriment abounds
And music fills the air
And in the cosy room
I’d hoped to see you there

Friends and loved ones
Surround me, old and new
I wished that one of them
Might have been you

Outside its cold
On this Christmas Eve
When the party's over
I won’t want to leave

But I will head home
Trudging through the snow
And in my loneliness
I’ll wonder how I let you go

Raw Emotion

Looking forward to Christmas with a sense of fear and foreboding, the most attractive option is to forego the festivities completely.

A poem underpinned by raw emotion as the protagonist looks forward to Christmas without the one he loves.

Author

Sad Christmas

There is a pain in my chest
Where my heart used to be
There are tears in my eyes
That are blinding me
Let the season pass
Without my participation
Christmas won't be merry
Is my sad anticipation

Ill Will

Vengeful rather than sad, the man dumped on Christmas Eve looks forwarded to a unrestrained, drunken Christmas and wishes his ex all the ill will of the season.

A vituperative poem in which a man, dumped by his girlfriend in the run up to Christmas, enjoys the prospect of a drunken, slobbish Christmas and wishes his ex the worst for the New Year.

Author

Cold Christmas

I can’t believe you did it
How typically bold
Dumping me at Christmas
How awfully cold

Still on the bright side
I won’t have to strain and heave
Rushing to find a gift
For you on Christmas Eve

I won’t spend the season
Living like a monk
I’ll be very merry
If not drunk as a skunk

But I can’t believe you did it
It’s a really shitty thing to do
Dumping me at Christmas
How typical of you

It’s probably for the best
So I won’t shed a tear
Have a merry Christmas
And a really shit New Year

Solitary Confinement

Self-imposed solitary confinement is the Christmas of choice for the recently bereaved in this poem of loneliness and loss.

A bereaved partner pledges to withdraw into a world of solitude over the festive period.

Author

Thinking About Christmas

I’m sitting here in dread
Memories of you filling my head
Sitting here so totally alone
Afraid of Christmas on my own
It was always you and me
Doing Christmas so merrily
Then you had to go and die
Leaving me with no goodbye
Losing you was such a blow
I know you didn’t choose to go
But I’m the one that’s left
I’m the one lonely and bereft
And for that simple reason
I close the curtains on the season
I will make my Christmas solitary
And not have to try to be merry
And I will avoid the usual jollity
All our friends and their frivolity

Bridging The Divide

Two lovers separated at Christmas are joined as one by the candle burning in a church.

A couple separated by thousands of miles celebrate Christmas apart, but with each other in their thoughts and hearts.

Author

Candlelight

Across the distant lonely miles
There stands my love
With comrades brave
Who stands beneath a Christmas sky
Singing carols just as I
Familiar carols
And sentiments we share.
Of course it’s Christmas,
That makes me wish you near
And makes me wipe away a tear
I pray to God to keep you safe
To wrap you in his loving light
Now the bells of Christmas fill the air
And I think of my love standing there
Underneath the Christmas sky.
In the church I keep a candle lit
That will burn while we’re apart
And my undying love for him
Will keep burning in my heart

Cold Comfort

A snowman, though magnificent, provides no consolation for the protagonist, who is missing the lover from whom he has split up.

A snowman proves no substitute for a lover absent at Christmas.

Author

Snowman Blues

Out of the snowy lawn
The snowman grew
Wearing a hat and scarf
The way that you do

With pebbles for eyes
Pressed into the snow
A smiley twig mouth
And a large carrot nose

He’s a magnificent sight
The snowman that grew
But he’s just snow and ice
And no substitute for you

I wish you were here
To chase the blues away
I wish you’d come back
To me for Christmas day

Separation

A poem about an absent partner who is far away at Christmas fighting for his, or perhaps her, country.

Absence makes the heart shrivel and die would be more appropriate for this poem of love and loneliness, as the protagonist suffers while their partner is away fighting (army style fighting, not brawling) at Christmas.

Author

I’m Thinking Of You

I’m thinking of you
As I sit here feeling blue
I miss you every day
While you are away
But duty called you
And of course I knew
You would have to go
Away to fight the foe
So I’m thinking of you
As I sit here feeling blue
Alone on Christmas day
While you are far away

Unreciprocated Love

A poem of love and indifference, in which dutiful protestation of Darling I love you are greeted with an insouciant response.

I was tempted to included this poem with the funny love poems as there is undoubtedly something comic about a relationship which is so manifestly unbalanced.

Author

Darling I Love You

Each and every day
I say these words to you
Darling I love you

Then every Christmas
I say these words to you
Merry Christmas Darling I love you

And every New Year
I say these words to you
Happy New Year Darling I love you

And every time I say it
You look at me and say
Whatever

Regrets

The poem expressing regret that dreams of spending Christmases to come with his one true love did not bear fruit.

There is an unlikely and heartrending conclusion to this festive poem about choosing the wrong life partner and having to live with the decision.

Author

The Gift I Most Wanted

The gift I most wanted
Was the sweetest girl
With a generous heart
A smile to banish darkness
And a warm and tender soul
To make all of my
Christmas dreams come true
But it wasn’t to be
Because I ended up with you

Lonely Even Amid The Jolity

The absence of a loved one makes the Christmas celebrations impossible to bear, in spite of the support of family and friends.

One can feel more alone in company than in solitude is the central premise of this poem about love and loss at Christmas.

Author

Lonely Christmas

The room is full
Of good friends
And loving family
But I’m still lonely

There is laughter
Happiness and jollity
Kindness in abundance
But I’m still sad

There is warmth
In the familiar smiles
And in the tender hugs
But I’m still cold

I continue to be lonely
I continue to be sad
I continue to be cold
Because you’re not here

Fight the Good Fight

A poem with contemporary relevance, as the absence of a loved one at Christmas is increasingly likely to be the result of military service rather than domestic warfare.

One's heart goes out to serving soldiers at Christmas, separated from their families and subsisting on boil in the bag turkey.

Author

Missing You

We want you home at Christmas
We want you to spend it with us
But we understand the reason why
And we promise to try not to cry
We will spend Christmas on our own
Until you come marching safely home

Desolation and Despair

Some chose solitude at Christmas, but there is nothing more heartrending that those who have it imposed upon them.

A short poem about separation at Christmas and the mental turmoil it causes.

Author

Lonely This Christmas

I want you with me at Christmas
I want you to be at home
And I know it’s not possible
But I just don’t want to be alone

A Void

Feeling of desperation and desolation abound in a poem about the loss of a loved one.

More ambiguity as to whether the departed lover has departed or simply left the life of the one they once loved.

Author

In The Bleak Mid Winter

I’m not looking for a white Christmas
For my life is already a cold place
Bleak and forbidding
So I have no need of snow
Carpets of white everywhere
Winter fills my every day
My life is perpetual winter
Because you have taken my warmth
You were the heart of me
You sent the blood coursing through me
You were the sun in my sky
Now my life is tundra
And I am just a frozen husk
To numb to exist

Enforced Absence

Sad rather than tragic, Essential Ingredient is a gloomy reminder that work or family commitments mean many couples have to be apart from some of Christmas day, at least.

Some will think he doth protest too much, others that he has suffered the cruellest treatment.

Author

Essential Ingredient

I have no need of Christmas
I have no need of memories
I have no desire to make plans
To join in with the festivities

Don’t wish me merry Christmas
I have no need of Christmas cheer
For me it won’t be Christmas
Until my darling wife is here

So save your merry Christmas
Don’t send your jollity my way
Keep the Christmas fizz on ice
Until she’s home on Christmas day

This is for all those whose loved ones have to work on Christmas day.

Bleak and Bleaker

The poem's repeated refrain of Christmas doesn't live here anymore punctuates a desolate poem about bereavement which make a fitting, if bleak, conclusion to Paul's collection of sad love poems.

A husband remains bereft following the death of his wife and is determined to treat Christmas Day like any other, a day filled with sorrow and loneliness.

Author

Christmas Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

There will be no wreath on the door
Not a single decoration will be seen
Cards will be recycled unopened
Christmas doesn’t live here anymore

There will be no gifts beneath the tree
There will be no turkey with all the trimmings
There will be no festive merriment
Christmas doesn’t live here anymore

There will be no season’s greetings
There will be no Christmas joy
There will be no festive spirit
Christmas doesn’t live here anymore

This Christmas day will be like any other day
A day full of abject loneliness
For since my darling joined the angels
Christmas doesn’t live here anymore

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