quotations about Christmas
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
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.
OGDEN NASH
I'm a Stranger Here Myself
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
Oh! like a wreath, let Christmas mirth
To-day encircle all the earth,
And bind the nations with the love
That Jesus brought from heaven above.
MAUD LINDSAY
"The Story of Gretchen", Mother Stories
Could but your heart become a manger for his birth,
God would again become a child upon this earth.
ANGELUS SILESIUS
Der Cherubinischer Wandersmann
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"
There has been only one Christmas -- the rest are anniversaries.
WILLIAM JOHN CAMERON
The Ford Sunday Evening Hour Talks
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
Be merry all, be merry all,
With holly dress the festive hall;
Prepare the song, the feast, the ball,
To welcome merry Christmas.
WILLIAM ROBERT SPENCER
"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!
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
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 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
Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves.
ERIC SEVAREID
attributed, Opening the Gifts of Christmas
Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts.
JANICE MAEDITERE
attributed, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas Magic
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
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
There are 17 more shopping days until Christmas. So, guys, that means 16 more days till we start shopping, right?
CONAN O'BRIEN
Conan, Dec. 7, 2011
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
Department store Santas are apparently being trained to lower children’s expectations about toys because of the recession. Yeah, it’s weird when you ask Santa for a train set and he’s like, ‘Yeah, how ‘bout a bus token?’
JIMMY FALLON
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Nov. 30, 2011