I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.

—Harlan Miller

Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it “white.”

 —Bing Crosby

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

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

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

“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more.”

—Dr Seuss

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. Pahro

Christmas is the keeping-place for memories of our innocence.

—Joan Mills

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!”

—Ray Stannard Baker

Were 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

A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.

 —Garrison Keillor

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