December 3, 2014
by Andy Saks
No duplicates. No ads. No pop-ups. And none of the quotes you didn’t want anyway.
Just the best 50 Christmas quotes I could find, the ones that express true sentiment and make you think.
Go ahead, enjoy these Christmas quotes with a nice ornament and some eggnog.
These are the quotes you’ll be proud to share in a Christmas dinner toast, church service, tree lighting, Facebook post and so many other occasions. All gathered together on one page.
They’re grouped into three sections for you: thoughtful (but not very religious) quotes, religious quotes, and funny quotes. I know one of them will capture the spirit of what Christmas means to you.
Have a Christmas quote you love? Suggest it using the Comments field at the bottom and I’ll add it to the list!
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1. “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
2. “Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”
— Norman Vincent Peale
3. “It’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
4. “Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store.”
— Dr. Seuss
5. “Christmas is the day that holds all time together.”
— Alexander Smith
6. “Christmas isn’t a season. It’s a feeling.”
— Edna Ferber
7. “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”
— Charles Dickens
8. “Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.”
— Washington Irving
9. “Christmas is not an external event at all, but a piece of one’s home that one carries in one’s heart.”
— Freya Stark
10. “A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.”
— Garrison Keillor
11. “He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.”
— Roy L. Smith
12. “Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.”
— Dale Evans
13. “I 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
14. “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 W. Sockman
15. “Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it ‘white’.”
— Bing Crosby
16. “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
17. “A good conscience is a continual Christmas.”
— Benjamin Franklin
18. “When you give up yourself, that’s when you will feel the true spirit of Christmas. And that’s giving that’s serving others and that’s when you feel fulfilled.”
— Joel Osteen
19. “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
20. “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
21. “Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you.”
— Steve Maraboli
22. “Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. ”
— Norman Vincent Peale
23. “Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and desires of little children; to remember the weaknesses and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you, and to ask yourself if you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open? Are you willing to do these things for a day? Then you are ready to keep Christmas!”
— Henry van Dyke
24. “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
25. “Every year we celebrate the holy season of Advent, O God. Every year we pray those beautiful prayers of longing and waiting, and sing those lovely songs of hope and promise.”
— Karl Rahne
26. “And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.”
— Jesus Christ
27. “The Christian faith can never be separated from the soil of sacred events, from the choice made by God, who wanted to speak to us, to become man, to die and rise again, in a particular place and at a particular time.”
— Pope Benedict XVI
28. “We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and mankind. He who has faith knows this truly; let him rejoice.”
— Pope Paul VI
29. “God seeks to influence humanity. This is at the heart of the Christmas story. It is the story of light coming into the darkness, of a Savior to show us the way, of light overcoming the darkness, of God’s work to save the world.”
— Adam Hamilton
30. “We are each one on a road going toward home, but we’re not trying to get there for Christmas. We’re trying to get there for eternity. We want to arrive home safely to our loving Father in Heaven. He wants us to make it safely there, so He has sent a guiding light for us to follow: a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect example.”
— Margaret D. Nadauld
31. “And 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
32. “God 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.”
— Josemaría Escrivá
33. “If you desire to find the true spirit of Christmas and partake of the sweetness of it, let me make this suggestion to you. During the hurry of the festive occasion of this Christmas season, find time to turn your heart to God. Perhaps in the quiet hours, and in a quiet place, and on your knees—alone or with loved ones—give thanks for the good things that have come to you, and ask that His Spirit might dwell in you as you earnestly strive to serve Him and keep His commandments. He will take you by the hand and His promises will be kept.”
— Howard W. Hunter
34. “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
35. “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
36. “The giving of gifts is not something man invented. God started the giving spree when he gave a gift beyond words, the unspeakable gift of His Son.”
— Robert Flatt
37. “Where there is faith, there is love;
Where there is love, there is peace;
Where there is peace, there is God;
And where there is God, there is no need.”
— Leo Tolstoy
38. “Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and receipts for all major purchases.”
— Bridger Winegar
39. “Let’s be naughty and save Santa the trip.”
— Gary Allan
40. “The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.”
— George Carlin
41. “What I don’t like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day.”
— Phyllis Diller
42. “I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included.”
— Bernard Manning
43. “There are some people who want to throw their arms round you simply because it is Christmas; there are other people who want to strangle you simply because it is Christmas.”
— Robert Staughton Lynd
44. “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
45. “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
46. “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
47. “Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas.”
— Johnny Carson
48. “Santa Claus has the right idea – visit people only once a year.”
— Victor Borge
49. “Nothing says holidays like a cheese log.”
— Ellen DeGeneres
50. “Our children await Christmas presents like politicians getting in election returns: there’s the Uncle Fred precinct and the Aunt Ruth district still to come in.”
— Marcelene Cox
Got a great Christmas quote? Got a toasting story to tell?
Share them below in the “Comments” field!
Oh — and Merry Christmas!
ABOUT THE BLOGGER
Presentation expert and eggnog fan Andy Saks
Andy Saks owns and runs Spark Presentations, a private company founded in 1998 that provides presentation skills training and speech coaching for executives, salespeople, marketers and other businesspeople, plus booth staff training for trade show exhibitors.
Spark also books professional presenters and public speakers to represent its clients at high-profile events, in roles like keynote speaker, trade show booth presenter, master of ceremonies (emcee) and auctioneer, as well as on camera talent and voice talent.
Spark’s client list includes large corporations like AT&T, Best Buy, FedEx, Hyundai, Intel, Kimberly-Clark, Olympus, Owens-Corning, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, and Volvo; high-tech industry players like AMD, Atrion, Citrix, Gigamon, and Symantec; service organizations like Vistage, 1nService and NERCOMP; and New England institutions like the Boston Jewish Film Festival.
Andy is also the author of The Presentation Playbook Series, a three-volume set of books that help businesspeople master common presentation situations by building and running speaking “plays” like a coach or player calls a key play in a game.
For more information on Spark services, please contact Andy Saks via email or Spark’s Contact page.
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