Twas the night after Christmas and all through the place
the young'uns were crying while Dad sat, red faced.
It seems he'd bought a PC for this year,
said, "On to the Web, we've got nothing to fear!"

While Mom and the Kids watched with anxious delight,
Dad turned on the 'puter and watched it take flight.
Dad let out a cheer and he shouted with glee,
"Look everyone, its got Windows XP!"

But while they all watched, there arose such a banner
They all huddled close to study the matter.
The machine acted strange, and it started to cough,
the screen flickered on, the screen flickered off.

Scratching his noggin, Dad poked at the box
young Billy suggested, "It might have a pox!"
"Don't be silly," said Dad, as anxiety grew,
"It can't have a virus, this thing is brand new!"

"Au contraire," said Billy, "I read on the Net,
"That XP comes with no firewalls set."
"And software that scans for virii and stuff,
must be updated, or things could get rough."

"How do yo know this," Dad asked, quite perplexed.
"How did you know that our box would be hexed?"
"A friend of mine showed me," Billy said with a cough,
"a big press release straight from big Microsoft."

"In it it told how to make PCs secure,"
"how to turn on firewalls and get updates that cure."
"None of that stuff comes already set,
so anything can happen when you log on to the Net."

The computer sat winking as worms infiltrated
Dad muttered something that sounded x-rated.
Then Billy suggested, "Things are not so bad,
you still have the receipt for this thing, don't you Dad?"

"We could put it all back, back into the sack,
take it back to the store, then get us a Mac!"
Everyone did as Billy advised
They now buy from Apple and they all feel quite wise

Dad has a G5, the rest each a PB
And they all surf the Web, and they're all virus free.
Christmas was saved and they all gave a cheer,
"Merry Christmas to All, Have an Apple Good Year!"

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