Johnny Cash - Christmas As I Knew It lyrics

One day near Christmas when I
Was just a child mama called us together and
Mama tried to smile
She said you know the cotton crop
Hadn't been too good this year
There's not a lot of spending money and
Well at least we're all here
I hope you won't expect a
Lot of Christmas presents
Just be thankful that there is plenty to eat
That'll make things a little more pleasant
And us kids got to thinking
How really blessed we were
At least we were all healthy and
Most of all we had her
Roy cut down a pine oak tree and
We drug it home Jack and me
Daddy killed a squirrel and
Louise made the bread
Reba decorated the tree with popcorn strings
Before we went to bed
Mama and daddy sacrificed because this
Christmas was kind of lean
After all there was the babies Tom and Joanne
And babies need a few things
I whittled a whistle for my brother Jack
And though we disagreed now and then
When I gave Jack that whistle he knew
I thought the world of him
Mama made the girl's dresses
Out of flower sacks
And when she ironed them down
You couldn't tell that they
Hadn't come from town
A sharecropper family across the road didn't
Have it as good as us
They didn't even have a light and
It was way past dusk and mama said
Well I bet they don't even have coal oil
Let alone apples and oranges and such
Me and Jack took a jar of coal
Oil nd some hickernuts we'd found
We walked to the sharecropper's porch
And set them down
A poor old ragged lady eased open the door
She picked up the coal oil
And hickernuts and said
"I sure do thank you" and
Quickly closed the door
We started back home me and Jack
And about halfway we stopped looked back
And in the sharecropper's window at
Last was a light
So for one of the neighbors and for
Us it was a good Christmas night
Christmas came and Christmas went
Christmas that year was heaven sent
And my daddy put on his rubber boots
And paced the floor waiting for the thaw
Back home in Dyess Arkansas