Hi to you Steve! I believe that George Sims wrote "'Twas Christmas Day in the Workhouse" to highlight the stupidity and heartlessness of the new Union Laws, which put a stop to the practice of 'out-relief'. Originally, a pauper could apply for help with food and firing from a Board, who could arrange for him/her to receive goods and stay in their own home. Couples could therefore stay together in their poverty. The new system amalgamated several local areas in a Union, with a large and forbidding Workhouse. Families admitted were separated, often never to see eachother again. Aged couples were parted, and so elderly people were reluctant to ask for help. The man in the original poem relates his desperate struggle to find food for his sick wife. She dies alone from starvation and he is eventually admitted to the Workhouse. His bitterness at Christmas time erupts in the heartfelt monologue. This is not funny, and no-one pretends it is. But the parodies ARE, and tend to mock the pompous tone of many Victorian verses. I do like to hear them, I love a good laugh, but I also have pity for the poor people who suffered so much in those days.