Quote Lady's Quotes by Subject, Christmas

Christmas

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 ("The First Christmas")
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 ting in the world ... stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death... Then you can keep Christmas! But you can never keep it alone.--Henry van Dyke ("Keeping Christmas" in The Spirit of Christmas)
As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is.--Eric Sevareid
At Christmas I no more desire a rose,
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows;
But like of each thing that in season grows.--William Shakespeare
"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 (A Christmas Carol)
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
The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.--Burton Hillis (Better Homes and Gardens)
Blend equal parts of Faith and Hope mixed well with Charity;
Stir in Good Will and Sweet Content and Precious Memory.
Add Kindness, Helpfulness and Joy; of Gratitude don't spare;
Then drop by drop Love's Essence sweet, and Praises freely share.
And don't forget such spices rare as Laughter, Smiles and Fun,
Taste often for the best results, ('Tis sweet to mince upon).
Now add a
Thankful Heart and then, the recipe's complete,
Your "Merry Christmas" all will like … so try the season's treat.--Esther Lloyd Dauber ("Special Treat")
Bless us Lord, this Christmas, with quietness of mind; Teach us to be patient and always to be kind.--Helen Steiner Rice
Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.--Hamilton Wright Mabie
"But I am sure that I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round...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."--Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)
Carol singing, church bells ringing,
Once more Christmastime is here.
Children laughing, grownups beaming,
Hearts are warm with Christmas cheer.--Ruby Lee Mitchell ("It's Christmas Time")
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
Christmas day is a day of joy and charity. May God make you very rich in both.--Phillips Brooks
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 (Song of Years)
Christmas gift suggestions from Oren Arnold: 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.
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. Brow
Christmas hath a beauty ... lovelier than the world can show.--Christina G. Rossetti
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 (Still Cove Journal)
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
Christmas is a spirit that flows from one heart to another. It is more precious than rubies and better than gold.--Agnes M. Pharo ("What Is Christmas")
Christmas is a time to expand our giving encompassing the friendless and needy ... near and far. Christmas is sharing.--Patricia Clafford ("Christmas")
Christmas is cold, and warmth,
Forgiveness, and tender smiles;
A handclasp firm, a letter flying
Across the snowy miles.--Lynda Schlomann ("Christmas")
Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.--Charles Schulz
Christmas is for children. But it is for grownups 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)
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 a date. It is a state of mind.--Mary Ellen Chase (New York Times)
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
Christmas ... is not an eternal event at all, but a piece of one's home that one carries in one's heart...--Freya Stark ("The Wise Men" Time and Tide)
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 (The Art of Living)
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 (Missions)
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.--J. C. Penney ("Christmas Thoughts")
Christmas is sights, especially the sights of Christmas reflected in the eyes of a child.--William Saroyan
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 the happiness that lights our children's eyes.
Christmas is a song of bells ringing through the skies.
Christmas is a time of peace, of contentment deep within,
A time of love and silent hope that years will never dim.--Sherrill Thompson ("Christmas Is…")
Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.--Washington Irving
Christmas is the season of joy, of holiday greetings exchanged, of gift-giving,and of families united.--Norman Vincent Peale
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 ("Christmas is the Time"
Christmas is the time to let your heart do the thinking.--Patricia Clafford
Christmas isn't a season. It's a feeling.--Edna Ferber (Roast Beef Medium)
Christmas isn't just a day, it's a frame of mind.--Valentine Davies (Miracle on 34th Street)
Christmas, my child, is love in action. ... Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas.--Dale Evans Rogers
Christmas now surrounds us,
Happiness is everywhere
Our hands are busy with many tasks
As carols fill the air.--Shirley Sallay ("Just a Few Mintues")
Christmas renews our youth by stirring our wonder. The capacity for wonder has been called our most pregnant human faculty, for in it are born our art, our science, our religion.--Ralph Sockman
The Christmas spirit--love--changes hearts and lives.--Pat Boone
The Christmas spirit that goes out with the dried-up Christmas tree is just as worthless.--Unknown
[The Christmas story] is as simple as was the Man himself and His teaching. SA 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 ("The Wonder"
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! 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
Christmas time's for dreaming
Thoughts of long ago…
Holidays of childhood,
Memories all aglow.--Alice Kennelly Roberts ("Christmas Time Is…")
Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.--Norman Vincent Peale
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 ("Christmas")
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
Each sight, each sound of Christmas
And fragrances sublime
Make hearts and faces happy
This glorious Christmastime.--Carice Williams ("Christmas")
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
Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas.--Dale Evans
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 (Pulpit Preaching)
Friends and relations;
Send salutations;
Just as sure as the stars shine above;
This is Christmas, Christmas my dear;
The time of year to be with the one that you love.--Bon Jovi("Bells Will Be Ringing")
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
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. (Preparing for Jesus)
God bless you with the courage to
Pursue each noble quest
And grant this golden Yule will be
By far your happiest.--James J. Metcalfe ("This Christmas Day")
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...--Wilda English
...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 ("The Glory of Humility" in Christmas Stories for the Heart)
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 ("The Little Things at Christmas")
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 (Pickwick Papers)
Hark how the bells
Sweet silver bells
All seem to say
Throw cares away
Christmas is here
Bringing good cheer
To young and old
Meek and the bold
Ding dong ding
That is their song
With joyful ring
All caroling--Peter Norman Knight and Nick Perito ("Carol of the Bells")
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 ("When Christmas Comes")
Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away.--Hugh Martin & Ralph Blane ("Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas")
However much of Christmas giving, the real Christmas must be first in the heart.--Unknown
I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas.--Taylor Caldwell
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The word repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Christmas Bells)
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
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 ("I Like Christmas")
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 fine morning and suddenly saying to myself: "Why this is Christmas Day!"--David Grayson
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
"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."--Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)
I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.--Harlan Miller (Better Homes and Gardens)
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 ("A Christmas Wish")
It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.--W. T. Ellis
It is not even the beginning of Christmas unless it is Christmas in the heart.--Richard Roberts (Contemporary Christ)
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 was always said of him [Scrooge] 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!--Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas;
Soon the bells will start,
And the thing that will make them ring
Is the carol that you sing
Right within your heart.--Johnny Mathis ("It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas")
It's the most wonderful time of the year.
With the kids jingle belling,
and everyone telling you,
"Be of good cheer,"
It's the most wonderful time of the year.--Eddie Pola and George Wyle ("It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year")
It's the time of year when everyone's together
we'll celebrate here on Christmas day
when the ones you love are there
you can feel the magic in the air - you know it's everywhere
There's something about Christmas time...--Bryan Adams & Jim Vallance ("Christmas Time")
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.
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)
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
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 ("The Angels Called it Good News" in Christmas Stories for the Heart)
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 (Dairymen's League News)
Let us have music for Christmas…
Sound the trumpet of joy and rebirth;
Let each of us try, with a song in our hearts,
To bring peace to men on earth.--Mildred L. Jarrell ("Music for Christmas")
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
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 (The Christmas Heart)
Love came down at Christmas;
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Stars and angels gave the sign.--Christina Rossetti
A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.--Garrison Keillor
Mankind is a great, an immense family... This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.--Pope John XXIII
May Christmas bring you happiness,
A song to fill your heart
With all the blessings large and small
The season doth impart.--Garnett Ann Schultz ("My Christmas Wish")
May Christmas lend a special charm
To all you chance to do.
And may the season light your way
To hopes and dreams anew.--Garnett Ann Schultz ("My Christmas Wish")
May joy be yours today,
And radiantly abide
Within your heart until
Another Christmastide.--Gail Brook Burket ("May Joy Be Yours Today")
May the song of Christmas
Be music to your ears
A symphony of love
That resounds throughout the year.--Joy Bell Burgess ("Contemplations")
May we not "spend" Christmas or "observe" Christmas, but rather "keep" it.--Peter Marshall
"A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world!"--Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)
"A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice. "Bah!" said Scrooge. "Humbug!"--Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)
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
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
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 (Christmas)
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
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 ("The Arrival" in Christmas Stories for the Heart)
Oh, heart, let's never grow too old
To smile anew, when Christmas comes,
At tassels red and tinsel thread,
And tarlatan bags f sugarplums.--Nancy Byrd Turner ("Let's Never Grow Too Old")
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 (A Christmas Carol)
One of the nice things about Christmas is that you can make people forget the past with a present.--Unknown
The only real blind person at Christmas-time is he who has no Christmas in his heart.--Helen Keller
"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 (A Christmas Carol)
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 (Better Homes and Gardens)
The peace of Christmas fills our hearts,
Inspiring many living deeds.
It takes our cares and fears away
And gives the courage each one needs.--Margaret H. Wright ("The Peace of Christmas")
Peace on earth will come to stay,
When we live Christmas every day.--Helen Steiner Rice
Probably the reason we al 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 (Better Homes and Gardens)
Remember this December,
That love weighs more than gold!--Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon
Silver bells, silver bells,
It's Christmas time in the city.
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring,
soon it will be Christmas day.--Kate Smith ("Silver Bells")
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. (Preparing for Jesus)
So remember while December
Brings the only Christmas day,
In the year let there be Christmas
In the things you do and say.--Anonymous
"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 (A Christmas Carol)
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 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 ("A Song was Heard at Christmas")
The spirit of Christmas can be so wonderfully wrapped up in our hearts, and our way of life, that it is readily manifested by our love and prayers; thus can we make more certain peace on earth to men of good will.--George R. Iles
The spirit of this season
Is old, yet ever new;
May it be yours on Christmas
And last the new year through.--Ernest B. McClellan ("The Spirit if This Season")
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 ("Following the Star" in Christmas Stories for the Heart)
Tall in the saddle we spend Christmas day
Driving the cattle on the snow-covered plains.
All of the good gifts given today;
Ours is the sky and the wide open range.--S. Weisberg ("Christmas For Cowboys")
Teach us to value most eternal things…
To find the happiness that giving brings...
To know the peace of misty, distant hills…
To know the joy that giving self fulfils…
To realize anew this Christmas Day…
The things we keep are those we give away.--Marvin Davis Winsett ("A Christmas Prayer")
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 (A Christmas Carol)
There is a Christmas song upon the air,
There is a joy innate within the heart;
An inner sense of peace, a holy light
Illumines life and sets these days apart.--Edna Greene Hines ("A Song Upon the Air")
There'll always be Christmas as long as a light
Glows in the window to guide folks at night,
As long as a star in the heavens above,
Keeps shining down … there'll be Christmas and love.--Edna Jaques ("There'll Always Be Christmas...")
There's a beauty when it's Christmas,
All the world is different then;
There's no place for petty hatred
In the hearts and minds of men.
That is why my heart is happy
And my mind can hold a dream,
For I keep a part of Christmas
With its peace and joy supreme--Garnett Ann Schultz ("I Keep a Part of Christmas")
There's a candle in my window
With its halo of bright gold,
Telling with each tiny flicker
Of the joy each heart can hold.
At this joyous Christmas season
For each passer-by to see,
Ponder on his way and reason,
This is just as it should be.--Ruth Scott Hubbard ("Just a Symbol")
There's a feeling of goodwill and peace,
It's a time of joyous giving
And love is everywhere.
What a wonderful time is Christmas!--Beverly J. Anderson ("What a Wonderful Time Is Christmas")
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
There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.--Erma Bombeck (I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression)
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 (Our Advent Journey)
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
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 ("This Time of Year")
Three wise women would have...
asked directions,
arrived on time,
helped deliver the baby,
cleaned the stable,
made a casserole,
brought practical gifts,
and there would be peace on Earth.--Unknown
'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" Folly for the Wise)
To celebrate the heart of Christmas is to forget ourselves in the service of others.--Henry C. Link
Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it "white".--Bing Crosby
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.--Anonymous (Pipefuls)
We should make the Yuletide season an occasion not merely for the giving of material things but an occasion for the giving of that which counts infinitely more … the giving of self.--J. C. Penney ("Christmas Thoughts")
We should try to hold on to the Christmas spirit, not just one day a year, but all 365.--Mary Martin
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)
What happy faces do we see,
Their cares forgotten everyone,
This is the way it ought to be
From dawn until the set of sun.
These blessed days of joy and peace,
Bedecked with wonder, set apart,
Through all our yeas will never cease,
If we keep Christmas in our heart!--Grace E. Easley ("Christmas in the Heart")
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 ("What Is Christmas")
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
When Christmas bells are ringing
The carols old and true
Of you, dear friend, I'm thinking,
And I send my wish to you.--Mrs. W. Baggott ("When Christmas Bells Are Ringing")
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 ("Christmas Fancies" Poems of Power)
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
When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things - not the great occasions - give off the greatest glow of happiness.--Bob Hope
The world's alive with Christmas joy!
Come join the merry throng.
You'll find upon your lips a smile,
Within your heart a song.--Nadine Brothers Lybarger ("A Joyful Christmas")
You will find the road to Christmas
Where your hopes and dreams come true,
And your heart will know the magic
That the season brings to you.--Garnett Ann Schultz ("The Road to Christmas")
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