Collection
Seasonal and holiday acrostic poems
Original acrostics for SUMMER, SPRING, AUTUMN, FALL, WINTER, CHRISTMAS, HALLOWEEN and THANKSGIVING, for grown-ups and for children.
Acrostic poems for the four seasons and the big holidays, written for this page. Each season has a poem for grown-ups and most have one pitched at children, because seasons are one of the first things teachers ask children to write about. The trick with all of them is the same: one thing you can see, hear or smell on every line.
On this page
SUMMER
Sprinklers ticking across the lawn at dusk,
Unmade plans, and nobody minding,
Melted popsicle down the wrist,
Moths at the porch light,
Evenings that refuse to end,
Radio baseball from somebody's garage.
No sun, no beach, no heat: the obvious summer words are all missing, and it is more summery for it.
Sandcastles with moats,
Umbrellas at the beach,
My feet are sandy,
Mom says, “Shake them off!”
Every day is ice cream day,
Running through the sprinkler.
Simple, concrete and told in the present tense. The quoted line makes it feel like a real memory.
SPRING
Seed packets rattling in a coat pocket,
Puddles with the sky in them,
Robins arguing over the same worm,
Inch-high green where nothing was,
New light at six in the evening,
Gloves left behind for good.
Spring told entirely through small changes. The last line is the moment you notice winter is over.
AUTUMN and FALL
Apples in a paper bag,
Underfoot, the loud dry language of leaves,
Tea steam on a cold window,
Umbrella forgotten at the bus stop again,
Morning fog on the football field,
Nights coming in like a tide.
Two U lines, solved two different ways: a preposition and an ordinary object.
Fields cut down to stubble,
A scarf you forgot you owned,
Leaves in the gutters, in the hallway, in the dog,
Last warm afternoon, and you knew it.
The third line gets a laugh with its last three words; the fourth line takes it back.
WINTER
Windows fogged from the inside,
Ice on the windshield at seven,
Noses red, gloves mismatched,
Two pairs of socks and still cold,
Early dark, the lamps on by four,
Radiators knocking like they want to come in.
Winter from inside the house looking out. The last line turns the radiators into guests.
CHRISTMAS
Candles in the window,
Hot chocolate, too hot, sipped anyway,
Ribbon under the sofa until March,
Icicle lights, half of them working,
Sprouts nobody asked for,
Tinsel on the cat,
Midnight, and the house finally quiet,
A stocking with an orange in the toe,
Snow, or at least the forecast's promise of it.
Nine letters, nine small true things, most of them slightly going wrong. That is what makes it feel like an actual Christmas.
HALLOWEEN
Hollowed pumpkins grinning on the step,
A witch who is also my neighbor, Carol,
Leaves skittering like something following,
Lanterns flickering,
Orange and black everything,
Wrappers hidden under the bed,
Every doorbell a small adventure,
Eyeholes cut crooked in a bedsheet,
Nobody sleeps till the sugar wears off.
Two E lines and a double L: HALLOWEEN is a harder spine than it looks. The neighbour line is the one children like best.
THANKSGIVING
Table leaf pulled out of the closet,
Half the chairs borrowed from next door,
Aunt Linda's rolls, the recipe still a secret,
Napkins folded into swans by the youngest,
Kitchen too hot, windows open in November,
Stuffing debate: inside the bird or out,
Gravy boat that only comes out once a year,
Instant naps on every couch,
Voices over the game,
Ice cream on the pie, no matter what,
Nobody leaves without leftovers,
Grateful, even for the traffic home.
A long spine works best as a sequence: this one follows the day from setting up to driving home.
The five-senses trick
If you are writing a seasonal acrostic, or helping a child write one, make a quick table before you start: five columns for see, hear, smell, taste and touch, and three things in each. Fifteen details is more than enough for any of the spines on this page, and a poem built from them cannot help being specific.
For classroom use, the acrostic lesson plan turns this into a 45-minute session, and acrostics for kids covers how to help a child who is stuck on a letter.
Questions
What is a good word for a summer acrostic poem?
SUMMER itself, or a smaller word from inside summer: BEACH, SUN, JULY, SWIM, or the name of the place you go every year. Smaller spines make it easier to fill every line with a real picture.
Should I write FALL or AUTUMN?
FALL is four letters and suits short, image-heavy poems; AUTUMN is six and gives more room. American readers expect FALL, British readers AUTUMN. Both examples are on this page.
How do I make a Christmas acrostic that isn't a greeting card?
Replace the general words (joy, magic, cheer) with things from your own house: the ornament nobody likes, the relative who always arrives late, the food that only appears once a year. The CHRISTMAS example here does exactly that.
Can I use these poems in a classroom?
Yes. The kid-level examples are written for ages six to nine, and all of the poems can be copied onto worksheets and displays without attribution.