To those of you who may not celebrate Christmas, but commemorate some other happenstance or follow some other tradition, we wish you the best also during this time of the year when we try to make sense of the last year and hope for the best next year.
Christmas waves a magic wand over this world,
and behold,
everything is softer and more beautiful.
~ Norman Vincent Peale
If there is no joyous way to give a festive gift,
give love away. ~ Unknown
I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
~ Charles Dickens
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
Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles.
~ Unknown
What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? Claustrophobic.
~ Unknown
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
And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?
It came without ribbons.
It came without tags.
It came without packages, boxes or bags.
And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.
What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.
~ Dr. Seuss
The only blind person at Christmastime is he who has not Christmas in his heart.
~ Helen Keller
Probably the reason we all 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
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.
--Unknown
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 you glad.
--John Greenleaf Whittier
There is no ideal Christmas; only the one Christmas you decide to make as a reflection of your values, desires, affections, traditions.
--Bill McKibben
It was always said of him, 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! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, "God Bless Us, Every One!".
--Charles Dickens
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 of 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 Mathhew Adams
"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
"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)
"Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home! "
--Charles Dickens
"I heard the bells on Christmas Day.
Their old familiar carols play.
And wild and sweet the words repeat.
Of peace on earth goodwill to men."
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients
of a truly merry Christmas."
-- Peg Bracken
Blessed is the season which engages the whole world
in a conspiracy of love.
--Hamilton Wright Mabi
"May Peace be your gift at Christmas
and your blessing all year through!"
-- Unknown