An Old-Fashioned Christmas Read online

  —W.C. FIELDS

  HE BEST Christmas present I got from my husband was a week to do whatever I wanted.

  —OLIVIA WILLIAMS

  HRISTMAS IS the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it.

  —RICHARD LAMM

  ONCE BOUGHT my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, “Toys not included.”

  —BERNARD MANNING

  NCE YOU stop believing in Santa Claus, the whole world just goes downhill.

  —TOM CLANCY

  HAVEN’T TAKEN my Christmas lights down. They look so nice on the pumpkin.

  —WINSTON SPEAR

  HE BEST Christmas gift of all is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up with one another. Jesus is the reason for the season! From a little spark may burst a mighty flame. The only blind person at Christmastime is he who has not Christmas in his heart.

  —HELEN KELLER

  T’S TRUE; Christmas can feel like a lot of work, particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you’ll find you’ve created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul.

  —CAROLINE KENNEDY

  HRISTMAS IS more than a time of festivities, family, and friends; it is a season of generosity, gladness, and gratitude.

  —WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD

  HRISTMAS IS not an external event at all, but a piece of one’s home that one carries in one’s heart.

  —FREYA STARK

  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

  OR ME, the spirit of Christmas means being happy and giving freely. It’s a tradition for all the kids in the family to help mom decorate the tree. Christmas is all about family, eating, drinking and making merry.

  —MALAIKA ARORA KHAN

  Y CHRISTMAS wish would be to have an entire week off. To spend it with my family and just curl up and watch Christmas movies when it’s snowing outside.

  —DAVID HASSELHOFF

  ALL 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

  PENED CHRISTMAS cards hum to me the hymn of love and teach me the sacrament of correspondence.

  —EDWARD M HAYS

  OUR CHILDREN need your presence more than your presents.

  —JESSE JACKSON

  URING THE holiday season, Christmas specifically, it can be hard to be away from family and friends.

  —MONICA JOHNSON

  LOVE PRESENTS, but since I’ve gotten older, I haven’t really wanted anything. Christmas is about family.

  —JACOB LATIMORE

  HRISTMAS IS, of course, the time to be home—in heart as well as body.

  —GARRY MOORE

  IFTS OF time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.

  —PEG BRACKEN

  EMORIES AND magic are what Christmas is all about.

  —LYNN JOHNSTON

  OR ME, Christmas is about family, loving, forgiveness, compassion, understanding and camaraderie.

  —ANTHONY MACKIE

  LOVE CHRISTMAS. A time to slow down and enjoy life and be with my family and friends. In busy years, it keeps me sane. In bad years, it makes me feel whole again.

  —MARY JO PUTNEY

  THINK ONE of the finest gifts I can give my friends in the holiday season is to pause with a long enough quality to actually see them. My calm, unhurried presence communicates this gift of a message, “I see you. I recognize you. I remember our times of together and am contributing right now to another quality memory. I value you and honor and take the time, right this moment to pause long enough to truly notice you.”

  —MARY ANNE RADMACHER

  HRISTMAS 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 TABER

  S 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

  HE BEST of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.

  —BILL VAUGHAN

  Y BROTHERS and sisters, may the spirit of love which comes at Christmas time fill our homes and our lives and linger there long after the tree is down and the lights are put away for another year.

  —THOMAS S MONSON

  OVE THE giver more than the gift.

  —BRIGHAM YOUNG

  HERE ARE no strangers on Christmas Eve.

  —ADELE COMANDINI

  RIENDSHIP IS a precious gift to give at Christmas time. a Cherished gift, a treasured gift that lasts through all time.

  —ANONYMOUS

  HRISTMAS IS a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends.

  —MARGARET THATCHER

  IME CANNOT be packaged and ribboned and left under trees for Christmas morning. Time can’t be given. But it can be shared.

  —CECELIA AHERN

  HARING THE holiday with other people, and feeling that you’re giving of yourself, gets you past all the commercialism.

  —CAROLINE KENNEDY

  HRISTMAS IS the season of joy, of holiday greetings exchanged, of gift-giving, and of families united.

  —NORMAN VINCENT PEALE

  O MANY people, holidays are not voyages of discovery, but a ritual of reassurance.

  —PHILLIP ADAMS

  EMEMBER THIS December, that love weighs more than gold!

  —JOSEPHINE DODGE DASKAM BACON

  T 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

  DON’T THINK Christmas is necessarily about things. It’s about being good to one another, it’s about the Christian ethic, it’s about kindness.

  —CARRIE FISHER

  WISH THAT Christmas may be happy and heavenly, and the holidays glow with the gifts of the inner life that God will give to each one.

  —JANET ERSKINE STUART

  EST 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 MCDOUGALL

  HRIST WAS born in the first century, yet he belongs to all centuries. He was born a Jew, yet He belongs to all races. He was born in Bethlehem, yet He belongs to all countries.

  —GEORGE W. TRUETT

  URING THIS Christmas season, when the world seems to be in turmoil, wars are breaking out in different places, crime is rampant, and many things are happening that are great sins in the sight of God. But in that crib is the person who grew up to save us. And He did.

  —BILLY GRAHAM

  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 world seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses.

  —TAYLOR CALDWELL

  HRISTMAS IS joy, religious joy, an inner joy of light and peace.

  —POPE FRANCIS

  HEN 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
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br />   LOVE CHRISTMAS music and there’s nothing like getting together with friends at Christmas time to celebrate with music the incredible reality of the Savior’s birth.

  —STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN

  OD IS here. This truth should fill our lives, and every Christmas should be for us a new and special meeting with God, when we allow his light and grace to enter deep into our soul.

  —JOSEMARIA ESCRIVA

  SCIENTIST SAID, “The very best way to send an idea is to wrap it up in a person.” That was what happened at Christmas. The idea of divine love was wrapped up in a Person.

  —HALFORD LUCCOCK

  UCH OF the beauty of Christmas lies in its challenge to look further, deeper, until we find its secret in the heart of God. But we never find that unless we look beyond the presents under the tree.

  —DALE EVANS

  OLIDAY AND Holy Day, Christmas is more than a yule log, holly or tree. It is more than natural good cheer and the giving of gifts. Christmas is even more than the feast of the home and of children, the feast of love and friendship. It is more than all of these together. Christmas is Christ, the Christ of justice and charity, of freedom and peace.

  —FRANCIS SPELLMAN

  OU CAN give a great and wonderful Christmas if you remember the gifts God has given you and, as best you can, offer them to others as He would. That is the spirit of Christmas and of true happiness every day.

  —HENRY B. EYRING

  EJOICE THAT the immortal God is born, so that mortal man may live in eternity.

  —JAN HUS

  ERE 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

  OOD 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

  HRISTMAS TIME, we can remember with deep thanksgiving the amazing Christmas gift of God Himself, when God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

  —HENRY M. MORRIS

  ESUS LIVED a life of peace, love, kindness and forgiveness, during the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, may we all do our best to follow his example.

  —BARACK OBAMA

  OU CAN never truly enjoy Christmas until you can look up into the Father’s face and tell him you have received his Christmas gift.

  —JOHN R. RICE

  O 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

  HRISTMAS IS a season which almost all Christians observe in one way or another. Some keep it as a religious season. Some keep it as a holiday. But all over the world, wherever there are Christians, in one way or another Christmas is kept.

  —J.C. RYLE

  LESS US Lord, this Christmas, with quietness of mind; teach us to be patient and always to be kind.

  —HELEN STEINER RICE

  HE VERY purpose of Christ’s coming into the world was that He might offer up His life as a sacrifice for the sins of men. He came to die. This is the heart of Christmas.

  —BILLY GRAHAM

  OVING GOD, help us remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the wise men.

  —ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

  ND WHEN we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans--and all that lives and move upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused--and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself.

  —SIGRID UNDSET

  DON’T WANT a Christmas you can buy. I don’t want a Christmas you can make. What I want is a Christmas you can hold. A Christmas that holds me, remakes me, revives me. I want a Christmas that whispers, Jesus.

  —ANN VOSKAMP

  CHRISTMAS SUN! What holy task is thine! To fold a world in the embrace of God!

  —GUY WETMORE CARRYL

  AITH IS salted and peppered through everything at Christmas. And I love at least one night by the Christmas tree to sing and feel the quiet holiness of that time that’s set apart to celebrate love, friendship, and God’s gift of the Christ child.

  —AMY GRANT

  HO CAN add to Christmas? The perfect motive is that God so loved the world. The perfect gift is that He gave His only Son. The only requirement is to believe in Him. The reward of faith is that you shall have everlasting life.

  —CORRIE TEN BOOM

  LL THE Christmas presents in the world are worth nothing without the presence of Christ.

  —DAVID JEREMIAH

  ES, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.

  —FRANCIS PHARCELLUS CHURCHILL

  OR IT is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.

  —CHARLES DICKENS

  UR 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

  HRISTMAS IS best pondered, not with logic, but with imagination.

  —MAX LUCADO

  ELFISHNESS MAKES Christmas a burden; love makes it a delight. The joy of brightening a child’s heart creates the magic of Christmas.

  —WILLIAM CAREY JONES

  HE EARTH has grown old with its burden of care, but at Christmas it always is young.

  —PHILLIPS BROOKS

  HE TWO most joyous times of the year are Christmas morning and the end of school.

  —ALICE COOPER

  HE SHARPEST memory of our old-fashioned Christmas Eve is my mother’s hand making sure I was settled in bed.

  —PAUL ENGLE

  HE SMELLS of Christmas are the smells of childhood.

  —RICHARD PAUL EVANS

  ’M THE only one who still believes in Santa Claus!

  —EDITH PIAF

  ’VE ALWAYS loved Christmas and that’s not really gone away from me from being a child to now. It’s always a magical time and I’m unashamed in my love for Christmas.

  —MARTIN FREEMAN

  T 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 A. GUEST

  ET 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.

  —WINSTON CHURCHILL

  HERE IS something about Christmas that requires a rug rat. Little kids make Christmas fun. I wonder if could rent one for the holidays. When I was tiny we would by a real tree and stay up late drinking hot chocolate and finding just the right place for the special decorations. It seems like my parents gave up the magic when I figured out the Santa lie. Maybe I shouldn’t have told them I knew where the presents really came from. It broke their hearts.

  —LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON

  NE
STRAIN could call up the quivering expectancy of Christmas Eve, childhood, joy and sadness, the lonely wonder of a star.

  —MAUD HART LOVELACE

  ERE I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive.

  —ROBERT LYND

  HRISTMAS 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

  O MATTER how many Christmas presents you give your child, there’s always that terrible moment when he’s opened the very last one. That’s when he expects you to say, ‘Oh yes, I almost forgot,’ and take him out and show him the pony.

  —MIGNON MCLAUGHLIN

  HRISTMAS IS sights, especially the sights of Christmas reflected in the eyes of a child.

  —WILLIAM SAROYAN

  IKE SNOWFLAKES, my Christmas memories gather and dance—each beautiful, unique and too soon gone.

  —DEBORAH WHIPP

  LOVE THE excitement, the childlike spirit of innocence and just about everything that goes along with Christmas.

  —HILLARY SCOTT

  WORD TO the wise to all the children of the twentieth century, whether their concern be pediatrics or geriatrics, whether they crawl on hands and knees and wear diapers or walk with a cane and comb their beards. There’s a wondrous magic to Christmas, and there’s a special power reserved for little people. In short, there’s nothing mightier than the meek, and a merry Christmas to each and all.

  —ROD SERLING

  VERY CHRISTMAS now for years, I have found myself wondering about the point of the celebration. As the holiday has become more ecumenical and secular, it has lost much of the magic that I remember so fondly from childhood.