Talk:Christmas

Hoyt's added
I have added a section of quotes from the public domain collection in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations. Some of these will likely duplicate quotes already in this article, hopefully allowing currently unsourced quotes to be deleted. Cheers! BD2412 T 19:02, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Unsourced

 * 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...
 * Louisa May Alcott


 * 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


 * "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


 * The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. 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 Savior, because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be neglected.
 * Samuel Johnson


 * 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


 * Christmas, here again. Let us raise a loving cup: Peace on earth, goodwill to men, And make them do the washing up
 * Wendy Cope


 * The Christmas spirit — love — changes hearts and lives.
 * Pat Boone


 * 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 day is a day of joy and charity. May God make you very rich in both.
 * Phillips Brooks


 * 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


 * 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...
 * Taylor Caldwell


 * 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




 * 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, 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.
 * G. K. Chesterton


 * 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?
 * G. K. Chesterton


 * 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


 * It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself
 * Charles Dickens.


 * 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.
 * Phyllis Diller


 * Something about an old-fashioned Christmas is hard to forget.
 * Hugh Downs


 * It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.
 * W.T. Ellis.


 * 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


 * Forster I do like Christmas on the whole... In its clumsy way, it does approach Peace and Goodwill. But it is clumsier every year.
 * E. M. Forster


 * How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep holidays than commandments.
 * Benjamin Franklin


 * 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
 * Dag Hammarskjöld


 * 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.
 * Mitch Hedberg


 * 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"?
 * Felicia Hemans


 * 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.
 * O. Henry


 * 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.
 * Charlton Heston


 * 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.
 * Benny Hill


 * 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.


 * 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?
 * Bob Hope


 * 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.
 * Washington Irving


 * 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


 * 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.
 * Samuel Johnson


 * 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.
 * Bil Keane


 * 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.
 * Helen Keller


 * 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
 * Rudyard Kipling


 * 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
 * Tom Lehrer


 * 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.
 * Jay Leno


 * 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!
 * Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


 * 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.
 * Martin Luther


 * 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


 * 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


 * 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


 * 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


 * 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


 * 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.
 * Ogden Nash


 * Christmas is a time when you get homesick — even when you're home.
 * Carol Nelson


 * Next to a circus there ain't nothing that packs up and tears out faster than the Christmas spirit.
 * Kin Hubbard


 * 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.
 * P. J. O'Rourke


 * 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.
 * Norman Vincent Peale


 * Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
 * Norman Vincent Peale


 * 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


 * 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.


 * Love came down at Christmas; Love all lovely, love divine; Love was born at Christmas, Stars and angels gave the sign.
 * Christina Rossetti


 * 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.


 * 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.
 * Fulton J. Sheen


 * 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?
 * Upton Sinclair


 * 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.


 * Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most.
 * Ruth Carter Stapleton


 * 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.
 * Shirley Temple


 * 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


 * 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


 * 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.


 * 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


 * 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.
 * John Greenleaf Whittier


 * 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!
 * John Greenleaf Whittier


 * 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.
 * Laura Ingalls Wilder


 * Tinsel is really snakes' mirrors.
 * Stephen Wright

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.


 * 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?