quotations about Christmas
There is no more dangerous or disgusting habit than that of celebrating Christmas before it comes, as I am doing in this article. It is the very essence of a festival that it breaks upon one brilliantly and abruptly, that at one moment the great day is not and the next moment the great day is. Up to a certain specific instant you are feeling ordinary and sad; for it is only Wednesday. At the next moment your heart leaps up and your soul and body dance together like lovers; for in one burst and blaze it has become Thursday. I am assuming (of course) that you are a worshipper of Thor, and that you celebrate his day once a week, possibly with human sacrifice. If, on the other hand, you are a modern Christian Englishman, you hail (of course) with the same explosion of gaiety the appearance of the English Sunday. But I say that whatever the day is that is to you festive or symbolic, it is essential that there should be a quite clear black line between it and the time going before. And all the old wholesome customs in connection with Christmas were to the effect that one should not touch or see or know or speak of something before the actual coming of Christmas Day. Thus, for instance, children were never given their presents until the actual coming of the appointed hour. The presents were kept tied up in brown-paper parcels, out of which an arm of a doll or the leg of a donkey sometimes accidentally stuck. I wish this principle were adopted in respect of modern Christmas ceremonies and publications. Especially it ought to be observed in connection with what are called the Christmas numbers of magazines. The editors of the magazines bring out their Christmas numbers so long before the time that the reader is more likely to be still lamenting for the turkey of last year than to have seriously settled down to a solid anticipation of the turkey which is to come. Christmas numbers of magazines ought to be tied up in brown paper and kept for Christmas Day. On consideration, I should favour the editors being tied up in brown paper. Whether the leg or arm of an editor should ever be allowed to protrude I leave to individual choice.
G.K. CHESTERTON
All Things Considered
After dinner, eaten, let it be confessed, with more haste and less accompaniment of talk than usual, the parlour doors were opened, and there stood the Christmas tree in a glow of light, its wonderful branches laden with all manner of strange fruits not to be found in the botanies. The wild shouts, the merry laughter, the cries of delight as one coveted fruit after another dropped into long-expectant arms still linger in my ears now that the little tapers are burnt out, the boughs left bare, and the actors in the perennial drama are fast asleep, with new and strange bedfellows selected from the spoils of the night. Cradled between a delightful memory and a blissful anticipation, who does not envy them?
HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE
My Study Fire
Christmas it seems to me is a necessary festival; we require a season when we can regret all the flaws in our human relationships: it is the feast of failure, sad but consoling.
GRAHAM GREENE
Travels with My Aunt
We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and mankind. He who has faith knows this truly; let him rejoice.
POPE PAUL VI
speech, Dec. 23, 1965
There has been only one Christmas -- the rest are anniversaries.
WILLIAM JOHN CAMERON
The Ford Sunday Evening Hour Talks
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
"Christmas Carol"
What I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day.
PHYLLIS DILLER
attributed, Women Know Everything!
Taking into account the present preparations for Christmas, and the time it takes to recover from it, we are beginning--are we not?--to consider it one of the most serious events of modern life.
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER
"The Burden of Christmas", As We Were Saying
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 every one around the Christmas fire; and made the little picture shining in our bright young eyes, complete.
CHARLES DICKENS
"What Christmas Is, As We Grow Older", Household Words, Dec. 1851
Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.
G. K. CHESTERTON
Brave New Family
The Angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High."
BIBLE
Luke 1:30-32
Christmas has been a season of mixed interests and meanings, but the very foundation, of course, is its religious significance. No matter what other personal desires or crises we have faced, I've never forgotten that this is the time to celebrate the birth of the Baby Jesus, and the impact of this event on the history of the world.
JIMMY CARTER
Christmas in Plains: Memories
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
"Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"
For me, music brings Christmas to life. Songs about the birth of Jesus transport me to the first Christmas. A carol that describes snow makes me feel the chill ... To me, each one of these special songs is a pretty package that I get to unwrap again every year.
ACE COLLINS
Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas
Nothing ever seems too bad, too hard or too sad when you've got a Christmas tree in the living room. All those presents under it, all that anticipation. Just a way of saying there's always light and hope in the world.
J. D. ROBB
Memory in Death
Christmas already! However welcome its coming, Christmas always seems to take us by surprise. Is the year really so soon at the end of its journey? Why, it seems only yesterday that it needed a special effort of remembrance to date our letters with the new "anno domini." And have you noticed that one always does that reluctantly, with something almost of misgiving? The figures of the old year have a warm human look, but those of the new wear a chill, unfamiliar, almost menacing expression. Nineteen hundred and--we know. It is nearly "all in." It has done its best--and its worst. Between Christmas Day and New-Year it has hardly time to change its character. Good or bad, as it may have been, we feel at home with it, and we are fain to keep the old almanac a little longer on the wall. But the last leaves are falling, the days are shortening. There is a smell of coming snow in the air, and for weeks past it has already been Christmas in the shops.
RICHARD LE GALLIENNE
"A Christmas Meditation", Vanishing Roads and Other Essays
On Christmas Eve, down there in Texas, we always went to the church first for the lovely service, and then to the town square with its breath-taking, brilliantly lighted Christmas tree, where there were little gifts for the children. And when we woke up in the morning, there was another Christmas tree which had appeared "miraculously" as we slept; the whole family gathered around it, and again we sensed the spirit of love running through the circle. There were gifts for everyone--but not too much! How grateful I am for that now! The real gift was the love we had for one another and the sheer joy of just being together.
DALE EVANS
A Happy Trails Christmas
Could but your heart become a manger for his birth,
God would again become a child upon this earth.
ANGELUS SILESIUS
Der Cherubinischer Wandersmann
When you with velvets mantled o'er,
Defy December's tempests frore,
Oh! spare one garment from your store,
To clothe the poor at Christmas.
WILLIAM ROBERT SPENCER
"Christmas Carol"
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
All About Christmas