'Christmas Eve on a Gettysburg Farm': A Poem for President Eisenhower

A printer's Christmas card

In December 1955, Frank R. Sohl, a printer from Garden City, Long Island, wrote a poem perhaps inspired by Dickens's A Christmas Carol. In it, President Dwight D. Eisenhower is visited on Christmas Eve at his Gettysburg farm by three spirits — not of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, but of three earlier presidents.

Sohl printed the poem on a Christmas card of his own design and sent it to the White House. Friends scoffed that the president would never see it among hundreds of greetings — so Sohl was astonished to receive a thank-you card from Eisenhower himself.

A hit

Ike shared the poem with friends and family, and his personal secretary asked Sohl for twelve more copies for people who wanted one. Newspapers ran the story, and thousands across the country wrote to Sohl for copies. It kept appearing in papers for years — including a December 23, 1957, printing in the Vidette Messenger of Porter County, Indiana, later found by a housekeeper at Eisenhower National Historic Site and now in the site's library. (As president, Eisenhower actually spent Christmases at the White House, not the farm.)

The poem

Relaxing by the fire after his first Christmas Eve chores on the farm, the president is visited at midnight by:

1. George Washington, who reminds him they share the same rank and urges him to plan a lasting peace, free of "entangling" strings;
2. Abraham Lincoln, who repeats his hope of "malice toward none" and "charity for all," and prays Ike will prevent an atomic war;
3. Woodrow Wilson, whose League of Nations failed, who tells him the United Nations has a better chance and that nations are counting on him.

Then Ike wakes with a start: it is Mamie, wishing him a merry Christmas and sending him to bed.

What it meant

Sohl's three spirits speak to the burdens Eisenhower carried — keeping the peace amid Cold War tensions, the weight of history and expectations, and his longing for rest — and to a hope many share at Christmas: peace and a brighter future.

More: the Eisenhowers' Christmas traditions, with a virtual tour of their decorated home.

Part of the NPS series The Eisenhowers and Christmas. Previous: Eisenhower Family Christmas Celebrations. Next: Eisenhower's World War II Christmases.

Sources

Based on "Christmas Eve on a Gettysburg Farm," Eisenhower National Historic Site, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Frank Sohl's poem of 1955 is summarized rather than reprinted, and the newspaper clipping is left out.