Yuletide: Christmas Eve

[REW]

The palpable, prodigious
weight of waiting
for the moment when Papa
will gather everyone
around the tree.

Did you see all the presents? (I would take this out as a question, either cut it out or rephrase as a statement such as look at all the presents)
Packages of blue and white stripes,
some with ribbon others with bows;
piquing the imagination of brothers
and sisters with what they hold.

Surely one has to be that toy dump truck,
the yellow one with the big black wheels
and an orange bed for hauling rocks.
The whirl of thoughts nearly overshadows
the fact that Papa is now standing by the tree.

I like that you are writing about a family tradition.  I presume you are leading up to the moment when you all light the yuletide log and that is the significance of Papa standing by the tree, that that particular moment has arrived.  I think you have captured some of the excitement for Christmas.  What I would like to see is a poetic expression of the yuletide tradition the family is waiting for.  So the family knows the time is near and while waiting it is distracting (all those presents).  But you do not get into the actual moment.  I have a feeling that in that moment may be where the poem really is.  This is cute though.  I like the perspective of the narrator wondering if one of the packages contains the dump truck.  The lighting of the log is likely more important to Papa anyway