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Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite
"Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house..." Well, not really. It's a darker version that begins with "It was a black Christmas Eve and all through the world...." The meter of this poem reminds the reader of Clement Clarke Moore's classic 1837 Christmas poem that has delighted audiences young and old for almost two centuries. But the similarity ends here. For there is a darker tale being told in rhyming verse, one of a kidnapped Santa Claus, threatened with unthinkable deeds by the evil Ice Queen, and a drunken Fairy Godmother who is much sought after by the Devil himself.
There is a distinct Gothic twist to Kathy McKenzie's poem, Father Christmas and the Evil Ice Queen. The combating forces of good and evil seem to collude and conspire until the reader is unsure which character is good and which is evil. This is more of an adult poem with its sexual suggestions. The hypnotic quality of the rhyming verse, so very much like the old classic nineteenth-century poem, is endearing and there is a sense of humor in this rather dark tale as the characters stumble towards their goal of freeing Santa before Christmas Eve. This is a clever, but rather dark, almost Gothic twist with poetic association to the classic, "Twas the Night Before Christmas."
