Christmas
Topics
Christmas
Quotations
Quotes regarding Christmas (listed alphabetically by author):
- The purpose and cause of the incarnation was that He might illuminate the world by His wisdom and excite it to the love of Himself.
- Peter Abelard, as quoted in "The Abelardian Doctrine Of The Atonement" (1892), published in Doctrine and Development : University Sermons (1898) by Hastings Rashdall, p. 138
- Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide–open–heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years... Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart.
- George Matthew Adams in "The Christmas Heart"
- Christmas is over and Business is Business
- I have often thought, says Sir Roger, it happens very well that Christmas should fall in the Middle of winter.
- Joseph Addison in The Spectator (January 1712)
- The rooms were very still while the pages were softly turned and the winter sunshine crept in to touch the bright heads and serious faces with a Christmas greeting...
- Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart...filled it, too, with melody that would last forever.
- Bess Streeter Aldrich in "Song of Years"
- Let's be naughty and save Santa the trip.
- Gary Allan
- Wretched excess is an unfortunate human trait that turns a perfectly good idea such as Christmas into a frenzy of last-minute shopping.
- Jon Anderson
- Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.- Oren Arnold
- Don't expect too much of Christmas Day. You can't crowd into it any arrears of unselfishness and kindliness that may have accrued during the past twelve months.
- Oren Arnold
- Remember This December,
That love weighs more than gold!- Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon
- The Christmas parties were orgies of drinking and singing and groping and pawing. Cartoon staffers invested their own money in preparatory liquor.
- Joseph Barbera
- In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukkah' and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukkah!' or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall!'
- Dave Barry in "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"
- Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall. We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space.
- Dave Barry
- Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice.
- Dave Barry
- Christmas itself may be called into question, If carried so far it creates indigestion.
- Ralph Bergengren
- I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
- And is it true? And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an in ox's stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Became a Child on earth for me?- Sir John Betjeman (1954)
- This time of year means being kind
to everyone we meet,
To share a smile with strangers
we may pass along the street.- Betty Black in "This Time of Year"
- Christmas, here again.
Let us raise a loving cup:
Peace on earth, goodwill to men,
And make them do the washing up
- There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.
- Erma Bombeck in I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression
- The Christmas spirit — love — changes hearts and lives.
- Pat Boone
- [The Christmas story] is as simple as was the Man himself and His teaching. As simple as the Sermon on the Mount which still remains as the ultimate basis ... of the belief of free men of good will everywhere.
- Hal Borland in "The Wonder"
- Isn't it funny that at Christmas something in you gets so lonely for — I don't know what exactly, but it's something that you don't mind so much not having at other times.
- Kate L. Bosher
- Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself.- Norman W. Brooks, "Let Every Day Be Christmas"
- Christmas day is a day of joy and charity. May God make you very rich in both.
- The earth has grown old with its burden of care
But at Christmas it always is young,
The heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair
And its soul full of music breaks the air,
When the song of angels is sung.- Phillips Brooks
- The feet of the humblest may walk in the field
Where the feet of the Holiest trod,
This, then, is the marvel to mortals revealed.
When the silvery trumpets of Christmas have pealed,
That mankind are the children of God.- Phillips Brooks
- Christmas has lost its meaning for us because we have lost the spirit of expectancy. We cannot prepare for an observance. We must prepare for an experience.
- Handel H. Brown
- Christmas! The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given — when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes.
- Joan Winmill Brown
- And so, this Christmas season may our hearts with gladness glow, As we read the blessed story That took place so long ago.
- Alpha L. Buntain in "The First Christmas"
- May joy be yours today,
And radiantly abide
Within your heart until
Another Christmastide.- Gail Brook Burket in "May Joy Be Yours Today"
- I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the word seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses...
- There has been only one Christmas — the rest are anniversaries.
- W.J. Cameron
- Christmas is the gentlest, loveliest festival of the revolving year — and yet, for all that, when it speaks, its voice has strong authority.
- W.J. Cameron
- Christmas is a holiday that persecutes the lonely, the frayed, and the rejected
- Jimmy Cannon
- Remember, if Christmas isn't found in your heart, you won't find it under the tree
- Charlotte Carpenter
- O Christmas Sun! What holy task is thine!
To fold a world in the embrace of God!- Guy Wetmore Carryl
- Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.
- Mary Ellen Chase
- Variant: Christmas is not a date. It is a state of mind.
- Christmas is the one time of year when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ.
- "Bart Simpson" (voiced by Nancy Cartwright)
- The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap,
His hair was like a light.
(O weary, weary was the world,
But here is all aright.)The Christ-child stood at Mary's knee,
His hair was like a crown,
And all the flowers looked up at Him
And all the stars looked down.
- When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?
- Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no child-like faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world. You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
- Let the children have their night of fun and laughter, let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures.... Sir Winston Churchill
- Christmas is a time to expand our giving encompassing the friendless and needy ... near and far. Christmas is sharing.
- Patricia Claffor in "Christmas"
- Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
- God rest ye, little children; let nothing you afright,
For Jesus Christ, your Saviour, was born this happy night;
Along the hills of Galilee the white blocks sleeping lay,
When Christ, the child of Nazareth, was born on Christmas day.
- Dinah Craik in "Christmas Carol," St. 2
- Great little One! whose all-embracing birth
Lifts Earth to Heaven, stoops Heaven to Earth.- Richard Crashaw
- Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it "white".
- Bing Crosby
- Whatever else be lost among the years,
Let us keep Christmas still a shining thing:
Whatever doubts assail us, or what fears,
Let us hold close one day, remembering
Its poignant meaning for the hearts of men.
Let us get back our childlike faith again.- Grace Noll Crowell
- It is the personal thoughtfulness, the warm human awareness, the reaching out of the self to one's fellow man that makes giving worthy of the Christmas spirit.
- Isabel Currier
- Christmas isn't just a day, it's a frame of mind.
- Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!
- Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836
- Sometimes paraphrased as: Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!
- I do come home at Christmas. We all do, or we all should. We all come home, or ought to come home, for a short holiday — the longer, the better — from the great boarding-school, where we are forever working at our arithmetical slates, to take, and give a rest.
- Charles Dickens in "A Christmas Tree"
- It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself
- Charles Dickens
- Once upon a time — of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve — old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house.
- Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol
- A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice. "Bah!" said Scrooge. "Humbug!"
- Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol
- "At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge," said the gentleman, taking up a pen, "it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. ... We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices."
- Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol
- "Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer... If I could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' upon his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!"
- "Ebeneezer Scrooge " in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
- I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!'
- Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol
- Somehow he gets thoughtful sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant for them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.
- Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol
- Then Bob proposed: "A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!" Which all his family re-echoed. "God bless us every one!" said Tiny Tim, the last of all.
- Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol
- I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
- "Ebeneezer Scrooge", in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
- A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world!
- Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol
- It was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!
- Charles Dickens on Scrooge after his visitations, in A Christmas Carol
- Time was with most of us, when Christmas Day, encircling all our limited world like a magic ring, left nothing out for us to miss or seek; bound together all our home enjoyments, affections, and hopes; grouped everything and everyone round the Christmas fire, and make the little picture shining in our bright young eyes, complete.
- Charles Dickens
- Christmas is a time when everybody wants his past forgotten and his present remembered. What I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day.
- Something about an old-fashioned Christmas is hard to forget.
- A song was heard at Christmas
To wake the midnight sky:
A saviour's birth, and peace on earth,
And praise to God on high.
The angels sang at Christmas
With all the hosts above,
And still we sing the newborn King
His glory and his love.- Timothy Dudley-Smith in "A Song was Heard at Christmas"
- It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.
- W.T. Ellis
- Christmas is an awfulness that compares favorably with the great London plague and fire of 1665-66. No one escapes the feelings of mortal dejection, inadequacy, frustration, loneliness, guilt and pity. No one escapes feeling used by society, by religion, by friends and relatives, by the utterly artifical responsiblities of extending false greetings, sending banal cards, reciprocating unsolicated gifts, going to dull parties, putting up with acquaintances and family one avoids all the rest of the year...in short, of being brutalized by a 'holiday' that has lost virtually all of its original meanings and has become a merchandising ploy for color tv set manufacturers and ravagers of the woodlands.
- Harlan Ellison in "No Offense Intended, But Fuck Xmas!", The Harlan Ellison Hornbook
- God grant you the light in Christmas which is faith;
the warmth of Christmas, which is love;
the radiance of Christmas, which is purity;
the righteousness of Christmas, which is justice;
the belief in Christmas, which is truth;
the all of Christmas, which is Christ...- Wilda English
- Instead of being a time of unusual behavior, Christmas is perhaps the only time in the year when people can obey their natural impulses and express their true sentiments without feeling self-conscious and, perhaps, foolish. Christmas, in short, is about the only chance a man has to be himself.
- Francis C. Farley
- Some businessmen are saying this could be the greatest Christmas ever. I always thought that the first one was.
- Art Fettig
- I'd like a stocking made for a giant,
And a meeting house full of toys,
Then I'd go out in a happy hunt
For the poor little girls and boys;
Up the street and down the street,
And across and over the town,
I'd search and find them everyone,
Before the sun went down.- Eugene Field in "A Christmas Wish"
- Forster I do like Christmas on the whole... In its clumsy way, it does approach Peace and Goodwill. But it is clumsier every year.
- How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep holidays than commandments.
- Christmas in Bethlehem. The ancient dream: a cold, clear night made brilliant by a glorious star, the smell of incense, shepherds and wise men falling to their knees in adoration of the sweet baby, the incarnation of perfect love.
- Lucinda Franks
- Christmas to a child is the first terrible proof that to travel hopefully is better than to arrive
- Stephen Fry
- I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year. As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year. And thus I drift along into the holidays — let them overtake me unexpectedly — waking up some find morning and suddenly saying to myself: "Why, this is Christmas Day!"
- David Grayson
- Not to open the hunting season on the pretext that there is no game would be as if one gave up celebrating Christmas because there was not enough snow to go by sleigh to midnight Mass.
- Maurice Grimaud
- A man is at his finest towards the finish of the year;
He is almost what he should be when the Christmas season's here.
Then he's thinking more of others than
he's thought the months before,
And the laughter of his children is a joy
worth toiling for.
He is less a selfish creature than at any
other time;
When the Christmas spirit rules him, he
comes close to the sublime.- Edgar Guest
- At Christmas
A man is at his finest towards the finish of the year;
He is almost what he should be when the Christmas season's here;
Then he's thinking more of others than he's thought the months before,
And the laughter of his children is a joy worth toiling for.
He is less a selfish creature than at any other time;
When the Christmas spirit rules him he comes close to the sublime...- Edgar Guest
- Time always seems long to the child who is waiting — for Christmas, for next summer, for becoming a grownup: long also when he surrenders his whole soul to each moment of a happy day
- There's a little vanity chair that Charlie gave me the first Christmas we knew each other. I'll not be parting with that, nor our bed-the four-poster — I'll be needing that to die in.
- Helen Hayes
- A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer.
- Oh! lovely voices of the sky
Which hymned the Saviour's birth,
Are ye not singing still on high,
Ye that sang, "Peace on earth"?
- The magi, as you know, were wise men — wonderfuly wise men who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents.
- Do give books — religious or otherwise — for Christmas. They're never fattening, never sinful, and permanently personal.
- Lenore Hershey
- My first copies of Treasure Island and Huckleberry Finn still have some blue-spruce needles scattered in the pages. They smell of Christmas still.
- I dreamed it was Christmas Eve,
and while waiting for a green light I noticed the manger scene on the church lawn.
It's all so overwhelming, this Christmas business, I thought.
The shopping and singing and partying and gift-wrapping and Santa Claus and Jesus.
I feel wonderful then guilty then joyful then confused.
God help me, I thought.
And the light changed, and the baby in the manger smiled.- Joe Hickman
- Roses are reddish
Violets are bluish
If it weren't for Christmas
We'd all be Jewish.
- The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.
- Burton Hillis in Better Homes and Gardens
- For many of us, sadly, the spirit of Christmas is "hurry". And yet, eventually, the hour comes when the rushing ends and the race against the calendar mercifully comes to a close. It is only now perhaps that we truly recognize the spirit of Christmas. It is not a matter of days or weeks, but of centuries — nearly twenty of them now since that holy night in Bethlehem. Regarded in this manner, the pre-Christmas rush may do us greater service than we realize. With all its temporal confusion, it may just help us to see that by contrast, Christmas itself is eternal.
- Burton Hills
- Christmas will always be in the hearts of God's children everywhere as they extend a helping hand to a friend in need ... as they go about reflecting God's goodness in the little quiet and unheralded expressions of a loving heart ... as they share the light of the world with those who live in darkness .
- Jane Hillsmen in "Christmas"
- The happiness and love on this one day
Bring thoughts which warm and cheer.
May we keep Christmas in our hearts
Through every day of all the year.- Gertrude B. Holman in "The Little Things at Christmas"
- It comes every year and will go on forever. And along with Christmas belong the keepsakes and the customs. Those humble, everyday things a mother clings to, and ponders, like Mary in the secret spaces of her heart...
- Marjorie Holmes
- The Christmas season has come to mean the period when the public plays Santa Claus to the merchants.
- John Andrew Holmes
- My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?
- Nothing's as mean as giving a little child something useful for Christmas.
- Kin Hubbard
- Fail not to call to mind, in the course of the twenty-fifth of this month, that the Divinest Heart that ever walked the earth was born on that day; and then smile and enjoy yourselves for the rest of it; for mirth is also of Heaven's making.
- Leigh Hunt
- Christmas! 'Tis the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.
- There is nothing in England that exercises a more delightful spell over my imagination than the lingerings of the holiday customs and rural games of former times. They recall the pictures my fancy used to draw in the May morning of life, when as yet I only knew the world through books, and believed it to be all that poets had painted it; and they bring with them the flavour of those honest days of yore, in which, perhaps with equal fallacy, I am apt to think the world was more home-bred, social, and joyous than at present.
- Washington Irving
- For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
- Isaiah 9:6
- Mankind is a great, an immense family... This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.
- Pope John XXIII
- The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Johnson Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another; but there should be a stated day for commemorating the birth of our Saviour, because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be neglected.
- What's going on here is a redefinition of Christmas as a time of family celebration rather than as a time of the community faithful celebrating the birth of the savior...There is a risk that we will lose one more of our Christian rituals, one that's at the heart of our faith.
- Robert Johnston
- The joy of brightening other lives, bearing others' burdens, easing other's loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas.
- W. C. Jones
- God put Santa Claus on earth to remind us that Christmas is 'sposed to be a happy time.
- A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.
- Garrison Keillor
- The only real blind person at Christmas-time is he who has not Christmas in his heart.
- The star of Bethlehem was a star of hope that led the wise men to the fulfillment of their expectations, the success of their expedition. Nothing in this world is more fundamental for success in life than hope, and this star pointed to our only source for true hope: Jesus Christ.
- D. James Kennedy in "Following the Star" from Christmas Stories for the Heart
- It was the Yuletide, that men call Christmas, though they know in their hearts it is older than Bethlehem and Babylon, older than Memphis and Mankind.
- H.P. Lovecraft in "The Festival"
- Ah! dearest Jesus, Holy Child,
Make thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for thee.- Martin Luther
- Call a truce, then to our labors — let us feast with friends and neighbors And be merry as the custom of our caste; For if "faint and forced the laughter," and if sadness follow after, We are richer by one mocking Christmas past
- One good thing about Christmas shopping — it toughens you for the January sales.
- Grace Kriley
- Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it.
- Richard Lamm
- Even as an adult I find it difficult to sleep on Christmas Eve. Yuletide excitement is a potent caffeine, no matter your age.
- Carrie Latet
- Now, the essence, the very spirit of Christmas is that we first make believe a thing is so, and lo, it presently turns out to be so
- Stephen Leacock
- On Christmas day you can't get sore, Your fellow man you must adore, There's time to cheat him all the more The other three hundred and sixty-four
- A very Merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear.
War is over, if you want it
War is over now.- John Lennon and Yoko Ono in "Happy Xmas (War is over)" (1971)
- The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. This wasn't for any religious reasons. They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin.
- Late on a sleepy, star-spangled night, those angels peeled back the sky just like you would tear open a sparkling Christmas present. Then, with light and joy pouring out of Heaven like water through a broken dam, they began to shout and sing the message that baby Jesus had been born. The world had a Savior! The angels called it "Good News, " and it was.
- Larry Libby in "The Angels Called it Good News" from Christmas Stories for the Heart
- Except the Christ be born again tonight
In dreams of all men, saints and sons of shame,
The world will never see his kingdom bright.- Vachel Lindsay
- To celebrate the heart of Christmas is to forget ourselves in the service of others.
- Henry C. Link
- A Christmas candle is a lovely thing;
It makes no noise at all,
But softly gives itself away;
While quite unselfish, it grows small.- Eva K. Logue
- I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
- Off to one side sits a group of shepherds. They sit silently on the floor, perhaps perplexed, perhaps in awe, no doubt in amazement. Their night watch had been interrupted by an explosion of light from heaven and a symphony of angels. God goes to those who have time to hear him — and so on this cloudless night he went to simple shepherds.
- Max Lucado in "The Arrival" from Christmas Stories for the Heart
- Were it not for the shepherds, there would have been no reception. And were it not for a group of stargazers, there would have been no gifts.
- Max Lucado (God Came Near)
- A scientist said, making a plea for exchange scholarships between nations, "The very best way to send an idea is to wrap it up in a person." That was what happened at Christmas. The idea of divine love was wrapped up in a Person.
- Halford E. Luccock
- And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men...
- Luke 2:9-14
- Your friendship is a glowing ember
Through the year; and each December
From its warm and living spark
We kindle flame against the dark
And with its shining radiance light
Our tree of faith on Christmas night.- Thelma J. Lund
- Good news from heaven the angels bring,
Glad tidings to the earth they sing:
To us this day a child is given,
To crown us with the joy of heaven.
- There are some people who want to throw their arms round you just because it's Christmas, there are other people who want to strangle you just because its Christmas
- Robert Lynd
- Have you any old grudges you would like to pay,
Any wrongs laid up from a bygone day?
Gather them now and lay them away
When Christmas comes.
Hard thoughts are heavy to carry, my friend,
And life is short from beginning to end;
Be kind to yourself, leave nothing to mend
When Christmas comes.- William Lytle in "When Christmas Comes"
- Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!
- Hamilton Wright Mabie
- I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included.
- Bernard Manning
- May we not "spend" Christmas or "observe" Christmas, but rather "keep" it.
- Peter Marshall
- The merry family gatherings —
The old, the very young;
The strangely lovely way they
Harmonize in carols sung.
For Christmas is tradition time —
Traditions that recall
The precious memories down the years,
The sameness of them all.- Helen Lowrie Marshall
- We should try to hold on to the Christmas spirit, not just one day a year, but all 365.
- Mary Martin
- Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
- Matthew 2:1 - 2
- From Home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another… The warmth and joy of Christmas, brings us closer to each other...
- Emily Matthews
- Best of all, Christmas means a spirit of love, a time when the love of God and the love of our fellow men should prevail over all hatred and bitterness, a time when our thoughts and deeds and the spirit of our lives manifest the presence of God.
- George F. McDougall
- There is no ideal Christmas; only the one Christmas you decide to make as a reflection of your values, desires, affections, traditions.
- Bill McKibben in Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case For a More Joyful Christmas
- This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ.
- Frank McKibben
- If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts, wouldn't it be a Merry Christmas?
- Don Meredith
- I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.
- Harlan Miller in Better Homes and Gardens
- Probably the reason we all go so haywire at Christmas time with the endless unrestrained and often silly buying of gifts is that we don't quite know how to put our love into words.
- Harlan Miller in Better Homes and Gardens
- The outdoor Christmas lights, green and red and gold and blue and twinkling, remind me that most people are that way all year round — kind, generous, friendly and with an occasional moment of ecstasy. But Christmas is the only time they dare reveal themselves.
- Harlan Miller in Better Homes and Gardens
- Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute heilige Paar.
Holder Knab im lockigten Haar,
Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh!- Silent night! Holy night!
All are sleeping, alone and awake
Only the intimate holy pair,
Lovely boy with curly hair,
Sleep in heavenly peace! - Josef Mohr, original German lyrics and translation of Stille Nacht (Silent Night). These have traditionally been altered to :
- Silent night! Holy night!
-
- Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
round yon Virgin Mother and Child,
Holy infant so tender and mild,
sleep in Heavenly peace!
- Silent night! Holy night!
- It is the one season of the year when we can lay aside all gnawing worry, indulge in sentiment without censure, assume the carefree faith of childhood, and just plain "have fun." Whether they call it Yuletide, Noel, Weinachten, or Christmas, people around the earth thirst for its refreshment as the desert traveller for the oasis.
- D.D. Monroe
- 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring — not even a mouse:
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.- Clement C. Moore
- Christmas is the time for looking ahead courageously through the gates of the swiftly approaching new year ... of resolving that the coming months will reflect a kinder, more forgiving and less heedless person than mirrored in the past.
- Ellen V. Morgan in "Christmas is the Time"
- Let Christmas not become a thing
Merely of merchant's trafficking,
Of tinsel, bell and holly wreath
And surface pleasure, but beneath
The childish glamour, let us find
Nourishment for heart and mind.
Let us follow kinder ways
Through our teeming human maze,
And help the age of peace to come.- Madeline Morse
- People can't concentrate properly on blowing other people to pieces if their minds are poisoned by thoughts suitable to the twenty-fifth of December.
- Christmas is a time when you get homesick — even when you're home.
- Carol Nelson
- We hear the beating of wings over Bethlehem and a light that is not of the sun or of the stars shines in the midnight sky. Let the beauty of the story take away all narrowness, all thought of formal creeds. Let it be remembered as a story that has happened again and again, to men of many different races, that has been expressed through many religions, that has been called by many different names. Time and space and language lay no limitations upon human brotherhood.
- The New York Times (25 December 1937)
- Next to a circus there ain't nothing that packs up and tears out faster than the Christmas spirit.
- Only in souls the Christ is brought to birth, And there He lives and dies.
- Alfred Noyes
- Christmas begins about the first of December with an office party and ends when you finally realize what you spent, around April fifteenth of the next year.
- P.J. O'Rourke
- There is a remarkable breakdown of taste and intelligence at Christmastime. Mature, responsible grown men wear neckties made of holly leaves and drink alcoholic beverages with raw egg yolks and cottage cheese in them.
- As you chose the lowly, the outcasts, and the poor to receive the greatest news the world had ever known, so may we worship you in meekness of heart. May we also remember our brothers and sisters less fortunate than ourselves in this season of giving. Amen.
- Karen L. Oberst (Light Came at Christmas: Services for the Advent Wreath)
- Christmas is not just a day, an event to be observed and speedily forgotten. It is a spirit which should permeate every part of our lives.
- William Parks in Missions
- Forasmuch as the feast of the nativity of Christ, Easter, Whitsuntide, and other festivals, commonly called holy-days, have been heretofore superstitiously used and observed; be it ordained, that the said feasts, and all other festivals, commonly called holy-days, be no longer observed as festivals; any law, statute, custom, constitution, or canon, to the contrary in anywise not withstanding.
- Puritan legislation in the British Parliament, abolishing the festival celebration of Christmas and other holidays (June 1647); as quoted in The History of the Puritans (1837) by Daniel Neal
- Even before Christmas has said Hello, it's saying 'Buy Buy'.
- Robert Paul
- You know you're getting old, when Santa starts looking younger.
- Robert Paul
- Christmas is the season of joy, of holiday greetings exchanged, of gift-giving,and of families united.
- Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
- Norman Vincent Peale
- I hear that in many places something has happened to Christmas; that it is changing from a time of merriment and carefree gaiety to a holiday which is filled with tedium; that many people dread the day and the obligation to give Christmas presents is a nightmare to weary, bored souls; that the children of enlightened parents no longer believe in Santa Claus; that all in all, the effort to be happy and have pleasure makes many honest hearts grow dark with despair instead of beaming with good will and cheerfulness.
- Julia Peterkin in A Plantation Christmas (1934)
- Christmas is not in tinsel and lights and outward show. The secret lies in an inner glow.
It's lighting a fire inside the heart.
Good will and joy a vital part.
It's higher thought and a greater plan.
It's glorious dream in the soul of man.- Wilfred A. Peterson in The Art of Living
- What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.
- Agnes M. Pharo
- So if a Christian is touched only once a year, the touching is still worth it, and maybe on some given Christmas, some quiet morning, the touch will take.
- Harry Reasoner
- Bless us Lord, this Christmas, with quietness of mind; Teach us to be patient and always to be kind.
- Helen Steiner Rice
- Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day.
- Helen Steiner Rice
- It is not even the beginning of Christmas unless it is Christmas in the heart.
- Richard Roberts in Contemporary Christ
- Christmas, my child, is love in action. ... Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas.
- Dale Evans Rogers
- Today the Virgin brings forth the Supersubstantial One / And the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable One
- St. Romanos the Melodist
- Today used as Christmas Kontakion in Eastern Orthodox Church.
- St. Romanos the Melodist
- Love came down at Christmas;
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Stars and angels gave the sign.
- What can I give him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd,
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man,
I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give him —
Give my heart.- Christina G. Rossetti
- Christmas — that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance — a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.
- Augusta E. Rundel
- Christmas is sights, especially the sights of Christmas reflected in the eyes of a child.
- William Saroyan
- I can understand people simply fleeing the mountainous effort Christmas has become... but there are always a few saving graces and finally they make up for all the bother and distress.
- May Sarton
- The spirit of Christmas fulfils the greatest hunger of mankind.
- Loring A. Schuler
- Let us keep Christmas beautiful
Without a thought of greed,
That it might live forevermore
To fill our every need,
That it shall not be just a day,
But last a lifetime through,
The miracle of Christmastime
That brings God close to you.- Garnett Ann Schultz
- Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.
- Charles Schulz
- A Christmas gambol oft could cheer The poor man's heart through half the year.
- Walter Scott
- Heap on the wood! — the wind is chill; But let it whistle as it will, We'll keep our Christmas merry still.
- Sir Walter Scott
- That's the true spirit of Christmas; people being helped by people other than me
- Jerry Seinfeld
- Christmas will always be as long as we stand heart to heart and hand in hand.
- Dr. Seuss
- All the Whos down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot,
but the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville, did not.
The Grinch hated Christmas — the whole Christmas season.
Oh, please don't ask why, no one quite knows the reason.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
Or maybe his head wasn't screwed on just right.
But I think that the best reason of all
may have been that his heart was two sizes too small.- Dr. Seuss From "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas"
- And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?
- Dr. Seuss From "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas"
- At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May's newfangled mirth;
But life of each thing that in season grows.- "Biron" in Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare
- The simple shepherds heard the voice of an angel and found their Lamb; the wise men saw the light of a star and found their Wisdom.
- Did you ever notice that life seems to follow certain patterns? Like I noticed that every year around this time, I hear Christmas music
- Tom Sims
- Consider Christmas — could Satan in his most malignant mood have devised a worse combination of graft plus bunkum than the system whereby several hundred million people get a billion or so gifts for which they have no use, and some thousands of shop clerks die of exhaustion while selling them, and every other child in the Western world is made ill from overeating — all in the name of the lowly Jesus?
- Christmas is the day that holds all time together.
- Alexander Smith
- He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.
- Roy L. Smith
Variant: He who has no Christmas in his heart will never find Christmas under a tree.
- Roy L. Smith
- Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most.
- Ruth Carter Stapleton
- Christmas ... is not an external event at all, but a piece of one's home that one carries in one's heart.
- Freya Stark in "The Wise Men" from Time and Tide
- Christmas is a bridge. We need bridges as the river of time flows past. Today's Christmas should mean creating happy hours for tomorrow and reliving those of yesterday.
- Gladys Tabor in Still Cove Journal
- I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.
- The time draws near the birth of Christ:
The moon is hid; the night is still;
The Christmas bells from hill to hill
Answer each other in the mist- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you . . . yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand.
- Mother Teresa of Calcutta
- Christmas is here: Winds whistle shrill, Icy and chill, Little care we; Little we fear Weather without, Sheltered about The Mahogany Tree
- William Makepeace Thackeray
- When the song of the angel is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost — To heal the broken — To feed the hungry —
To release the prisoner — To rebuild the nations —
To bring peace among brothers and sisters —
To make music in the heart.- Howard Thurman
- The wonderful world of Christmas is a joy from the moment it starts. The wonderful world of Christmas should remain ev'ry day in our hearts...
- Charles Tobias and Al Frisch
- For centuries men have kept an appointment with Christmas. Christmas means fellowship, feasting, giving and receiving, a time of good cheer, home.
- W. J. Tucker in Pulpit Preaching
- At Christmas play and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year.- Thomas Tusser in "The Farmer's Daily Diet" from A Hundred Points of Good Husbandry (1557)
- Of course, this is the season to be jolly, but it is also a good time to be thinking about those who aren't.
- Helen Valentine
- Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you ... to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old ... Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world — stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death — and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas! But you can never keep it alone.
- Henry van Dyke ("Keeping Christmas" in The Spirit of Christmas)
- Gloria, Gloria! they cry, for their song embraces all that the Lord has begun this day: Glory to God in the highest of heavens! And peace to the people with whom he is pleased! And who are these people? With whom does the good Lord choose to take his pleasure? The shepherds. The plain and nameless — whose every name the Lord knows well. You. And me.
- Walter Wangerin Jr. in Preparing for Jesus
- So here comes Gabriel again, and what he says is "Good tidings of great joy ... for all people." ... That's why the shepherds are first: they represent all the nameless, all the working stiffs, the great wheeling population of the whole world.
- Walter Wangerin Jr. in Preparing for Jesus
- Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special! How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food, and beer.... Who'd have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment, and spirituality would mix so harmoniously?
- Bill Watterson in Calvin & Hobbes
- Christmas is for children. But it is for grown-ups too. Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts.
- Lenora Mattingly Weber "Extension"
- Now I'm an old Christmas tree, the roots of which have died. They just come along and while the little needles fall off me replace them with medallions.
- Orson Welles
- I love the Christmas-tide, and yet,
I notice this, each year I live;
I always like the gifts I get,
But how I love the gifts I give!
'Tis blessed to bestow, and yet,
Could we bestow the gifts we get,
And keep the ones we give away,
How happy were our Christmas day!- Carolyn Wells, "A Christmas Thought" from Folly for the Wise
- As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December's bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same.
- Donald E. Westlake
- To perceive Christmas through its wrapping becomes more difficult with every year.
- E. B. White,"The Distant Music of the Hounds" in The Second Tree from the Corner (1954)
- From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it.
- Katherine Whitehorn
- Somehow not only for Christmas
But all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others
Is the joy that comes back to you.
And the more you spend in blessing
The poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your heart's possessing
Returns to make you glad.
- A little smile, a word of cheer, A bit of love from someone near, A little gift from one held dear, Best wishes for the coming year… These make a Merry Christmas!
- I like the Christmas that fulfills my needs ... to be forgiven from greed and selfishness, to fill my empty soul with peace and compassion, for hope and faith and charity, for myself renewed and hope restored in an erring world.
- Robert D. Wigert in "I Like Christmas"
- When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow,
We hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago,
And etched on vacant places
Are half-forgotten faces
Of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know.- Ella Wheeler Wilcox in "Christmas Fancies" from Poems of Power
- Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.
- Larry Wilde in The Merry Book of Christmas
- Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.
- Tinsel is really snakes' mirrors.
- God's visit to earth took place in an animal shelter with no attendants present and nowhere to lay the newborn king but a feed trough. ... For just an instant the sky grew luminous with angels, yet who saw the spectacle? Illiterate hirelings who watched the flocks of others, "nobodies" who failed to leave their names...
- Philip Yancy in "The Glory of Humility" from Christmas Stories for the Heart
- This Advent we look to the Wise Men to teach us where to focus our attention. We set our sights on things above, where God is. We draw closer to Jesus... When our Advent journey ends, and we reach the place where Jesus resides in Bethlehem, may we, like the Wise Men, fall on our knees and adore him as our true and only King.
- Mark Zimmermann in Our Advent Journey
- I find Christmas very difficult.
- Morrissey on stage at Earl's Court December 18th 2004
Anonymous, or author unknown
- Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Christ descends from the heavens, welcome Him!
Christ is now on earth, O be jubilant!
Sing to the Lord, the whole earth,
And sing praises to Him with joy, O ye people,
For He has been exalted!- Eastern Orthodox Church, Christmas Canon, 1st Song, Irmos.http://home.it.net.au/~jgrapsas/pages/Christmas_hymns.html
- A Christmas Blessing During this Christmas season:
May you be blessed
With the spirit of the season,
which is peace,
The gladness of the season,
which is hope,
And the heart of the season,
which is love.
- Jesus, the Light of the World, as we celebrate your birth ... may we begin to see the world in the light of understanding you give us.
- A Christmas shopper's complaint is one of long-standing.
- A goose never voted for an early Christmas.
- Irish Saying
- A white Christmas fills the churchyard.
- French Proverb
- About all you can do is dream of a white Christmas, for it seems like it always leaves most of us in the red.
- Ask your children two questions this Christmas. First: "What do you want to give to others for Christmas?" Second: "What do you want for Christmas?" The first fosters generosity of heart and an outward focus. The second can breed selfishness if not tempered by the first.
- Christmas began in the heart of God. It is complete only when it reaches the heart of man.
- Christmas is a race to see which gives out first — your money or your feet.
- Christmas is the season when you buy this year's gifts with next year's money.
- He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.
- If there is no joyous way to give a festive gift, give love away.
- If, Ifs and buts were candies and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas.
- It is Christmas in the mansion,
Yule-log fires and silken frocks;
It is Christmas in the cottage,
Mother's filling little socks.
It is Christmas on the highway,
In the thronging, busy mart;
But the dearest, truest Christmas
Is the Christmas in the heart.
- It is the spirit of brotherhood in the cheer of Christmas that makes it so glorious. Brotherliness is but the manifestation of the spirit of Christ.
- Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.
- Author unknown, attributed to a 7-year-old named Bobby
- Many banks have a new kind of Christmas club in operation. The new club helps you save money to pay for last year's gifts.
- Oh, for the good old days when people would stop Christmas shopping when they ran out of money.
- One of the nice things about Christmas is that you can make people forget the past with a present.
- People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worried about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas.
- Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles.
- Sadly this Christmas passes away, so let us give thanks today, as we prepare for the year anew, with faith and hope to see it through.
- Selfishness makes Christmas a burden, love makes it a delight.
- Sing hey! Sing hey!
For Christmas Day;
Twine mistletoe and holly.
For a friendship glows
In winter snows,
And so let's all be jolly!
- So remember while December
Brings the only Christmas day,
In the year let there be Christmas
In the things you do and say.
- Symbolizing eternal hope, the wreath goes 'round and 'round, And where it starts or ends cannot be found. Woven of things that grow - for life, and hung for holiday delight. The wreath must be left in place. From Advent through Twelfth Night.
- The Christmas spirit that goes out with the dried-up Christmas tree is just as worthless.
- The Christmas tree has taken the place of the altar in too much of our modern Christmas observance.
- The message of Christmas is that the visible material world is bound to the invisible spiritual world.
- The universal joy of Christmas is certainly wonderful. We ring the bells when princes are born, or toll a mournful dirge when great men pass away. Nations have their red-letter days, their carnivals and festivals, but once a year and only once, the whole world stands still to celebrate the advent of a life. Only Jesus of Nazareth claims this worldwide, undying remembrance. You cannot cut Christmas out of the calendar, nor out of the heart of the world.
- Then ye be glad, good people, This night of all the year, And light ye up your candles, His star is shining near...
- Two things upon this changing earth can neither change nor end; the splendor of Christ's humble birth, the love of friend for friend.
- Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it "white".
- Until one feels the spirit of Christmas, there is no Christmas. All else is outward display — so much tinsel and decorations. For it isn't the holly, it isn't the snow. It isn't the tree not the firelight's glow. It's the warmth that comes to the hearts of men when the Christmas spirit returns again.
- What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? Claustrophobic.
- Why is Christmas just like a day at the office? You do all the work and the fat guy with the suit gets all the credit.
- With every recurring Christmas morning the prospects of the world's peace grow brighter, and the practice of universal brotherhood comes a little nearer to the door.
- Wouldn't life be worth the living
Wouldn't dreams be coming true
If we kept the Christmas spirit
All the whole year through?