Of all the old festivals, however, that of Christmas awakens the strongest and most heartfelt associations. There is a tone of solemn and sacred feeling that blends with our conviviality, and lifts the sprit to a state of hallowed and elevated enjoyment.
—Washington Irving (1783–1859) American Essayist, Biographer, Historian
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.
—Henry van Dyke Jr. (1852–1933) American Author, Educator, Clergyman
Christmas day is a day of joy and charity. May God make you very rich in both.
—Phillips Brooks (1835–93) American Episcopal Clergyman, Author
However much of Christmas giving, the real Christmas must be first in the heart.
—Unknown
“Somehow he [Tim] 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 (1812–70) English Novelist
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.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
I truly believe that if we keep telling the Christmas story, singing the Christmas songs, and living the Christmas spirit, we can bring joy and happiness and peace to this world.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
“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 won pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!”
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
There’s more, much more, to Christmas
Than candlelight and cheer;
It’s the spirit of sweet friendship
That brightens all year.
It’s thoughtfulness and kindness,
It’s hope reborn again,
For peace, for understanding,
And for goodwill to men!
—Unknown
This is the month, and this the happy morn, wherein the Son of heaven’s eternal King, of wedded Maid and Virgin Mother born, our great redemption from above did bring.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
Mankind is a great, an immense family… This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.
—Pope John XXIII (1881–1963) Italian Catholic Religious Leader, Pope
A woman spent all Christmas Day in a telephone box without ringing anyone. If someone comes to phone, she leaves the box, then resumes her place afterwards. No one calls her either, but from a window in the street, someone watched her all day, no doubt since they had nothing better to do. The Christmas syndrome.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
Christmas to a child is the first terrible proof that to travel hopefully is better than to arrive
—Stephen Fry (b.1957) English Actor, Writer, Director, Broadcaster
Christmas hath a beauty … lovelier than the world can show.
—Christina Rossetti (1830–94) English Poet, Hymn Writer
Christmas will always be as long as we stand heart to heart and hand in hand.
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Books Writer, Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
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 (1878–1962) American Columnist, Journalist
When we judge other people we confront them in a spirit of detachment, observing and reflecting as it were from the outside. But love has neither time nor opportunity for this. If we love, we can never observe the other person with detachment, for he is always and at every moment a living claim to our love and service.
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–45) German Lutheran Pastor, Theologian
A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world!
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
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 (1850–1919) American Poet, Journalist
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, and transport the sailor and the traveler, thousands of miles away, back to his own fireside and his quiet home!
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
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 (1812–70) English Novelist
So remember while December
Brings the only Christmas day,
In the year let there be Christmas
In the things you do and say.
—Anonymous
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 Christmastime.
—Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American Children’s Novelist
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 (1812–70) English Novelist
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 (b.1955) American Christian Author, Minister
Christmas is not just a time for festivity and merry making. It is more than that. It is a time for the contemplation of eternal things. The Christmas spirit is a spirit of giving and forgiving.
—James Cash Penney (1875–1971) American Entrepreneur
Christmas … is not an eternal event at all, but a piece of one’s home that one carries in one’s heart…
—Freya Stark (1893–1993) British Explorer, Writer
A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.
—Garrison Keillor (b.1942) American Author, Humorist, Radio Personality
Love came down at Christmas;
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Stars and angels gave the sign.
—Christina Rossetti (1830–94) English Poet, Hymn Writer
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 (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun