To see Saint Nicholas as only or mostly jolly

Has got to be madness or the sheerest folly

The real Nicholas was soldier and sailor

Before commercialism draped him like a tailor

With a certainty he emulated Christ in all his ways

And brought a lot of joy in all of his many days

But, of all the stories that make me most smile

Is the tale of Nicea in which he issued denial

With a punch in the hertic’s soon broken nose

He taught him well or at least I would suppose

For while we celebrate St Nicholas in our memory

Arius and his fallacies are shorn from our tree

Let it be known that I am both surfer and servant

And warrior as my hero is to the most observant