Christmas 2

Christmas

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world,
and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

Norman Vincent Peale

   

Those who have not Christmas in their hearts
will never find it under a tree.

Roy L. Smith

   
   

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

   

   
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

   

Instead of being a time of unusual behavior, Christmas is perhaps the only time
in the  year when people can obey their natural impulses and express their
true sentiments without feeling self-conscious and, perhaps, foolish.
Christmas, in short, is about the only chance a person has to be him- or herself.

Francis C. Farley

   
   
It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.

W.T. Ellis

   

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself.

Norman W. Brooks, "Let Every Day Be Christmas"

   

It is the one season of the year when we can lay aside all gnawing worry,
indulge in sentiment without censure, assume the carefree
faith of childhood, and just plain "have fun."  Whether they call it
Yuletide, Noel, Weinachten, or Christmas, people around the earth
thirst for its refreshment as the desert traveller for the oasis.

D.D. Monroe

   

   

There's nothing sadder in this world
than to awake
Christmas morning and not be a child. 

Erma Bombeck

   

I hear that in many places something has happened to Christmas; that it is
changing from a time of merriment and carefree gaiety to a holiday
which is filled with tedium; that many people dread the day and the obligation
to give Christmas presents is a nightmare to weary, bored souls; that the
children of enlightened parents no longer believe in Santa Claus;
that all in all, the effort to be happy and have pleasure makes
many honest hearts grow dark with despair instead of
beaming with good will and cheerfulness.

Julia Peterkin, A Plantation Christmas, 1934

   
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

   

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

   

This Christmas I would light a candle
In some forlorn child's eye,
Place a new star of friendship
In someone's lonely skies.
I would put a sparkling wreath of joy
Where it might melt a bitter heart;
Be steadfast in my prayer for peace
For all the world, not just a part.
So in this season, love-beguiled,
Would I gift the small Christ child.

Elizabeth Searle Lamb

   

   
Let me not wrap, stack, box, bag, tie, tag, bundle, seal, keep Christmas.
Christmas kept is liable to mold.
Let me give Christmas away, unwrapped, by exuberant armfuls.
Let me share, dance, live Christmas unpretentiously, merrily,
responsibly with overflowing hands, tireless steps and sparkling eyes.
Christmas given away will stay fresh—even until it comes again.

Linda Felver

   
   

Christmas is the one day of the year that carries real hope
and promise for all humankind.  It carries the torch
of brotherhood.  It is the one day in the year when most of us
grow big of heart and broad of mind.  It is the single day when
most of us are as kind and as thoughtful of others as we know how
to be; when most of us are as gracious and generous as we would
like always to be; when the joy of home is more important  than the
profits of the office; when peoples of all races speak cheerfully
to each other when they meet; when high and low wish each other well;
and the one day when even enemies forgive and forget.

Edgar Guest

   

The Best Gift
Betty Werth

On Christmas Eve, a young boy with light in his eyes
Looked deep into Santa’s, to Santa’s surprise
And said as he sat on Santa’s broad knee,
"I want your secret. Tell it to me."

He leaned up and whispered in Santa’s good ear
"How do you do it, year after year?"
"I want to know how, as you travel about,
Giving gifts here and there, you never run out.

How is it, dear Santa, that in your pack of toys
You have plenty for all of the world’s girls and boys?
Stays so full, never empties, as you make your way
From rooftop to rooftop, to homes large and small,
From nation to nation, reaching them all?"

(Find out the answer by reading the whole poem!  Click here!)

   

    

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Every year people think about how to have the perfect Christmas, and of course there's no such thing.

What's a perfect Christmas?  Is it really necessary to build a tree out of 362 cream puffs?  Most of us have one or two things that make us feel Christmas is perfect, but we may not even have time to ask ourselves what they are.

For me, it's being reminded to give to family, to friends, to strangers.  But it's also decorating.  I love to decorate the house for Christmas and I always give myself some extra time so I can do it.

My stepdaughter likes a lot of things, but especially being able to hang her stocking on our chimney.  For my husband and his brother, it's being able to cook together.

My brother likes the music and midnight Mass.  My sister-in-law likes having all of us together around a table.

What's the perfect Christmas?  It may be snow.  If that's true for you, drive up to the mountains with your family or friends and get that feeling.  It only takes the one or two things that mean the most to you.

Give yourself those things and then save your time and energy to enjoy the feeling of Christmas.  There's no such thing as a perfect Christmas unless it's defined by the one thing that's important to you.

Jennifer James
Success Is the Quality of Your Journey
   

I know that I was deep into a Christmas longing.  It's a longing each of
us senses this time of year--especially when we listen to the child inside
of us.  It's a desire to be home, to belong, to find fulfillment, complete
and eternal.  Christmas is an invitation to a celebration yet to happen.
On this side of eternity, Christmas is still a promise.
Yes, the Savior has come, and with Him peace on earth, but the
story is not finished.  Yes, there is peace in our hearts, but
we long for peace in our world.

Joni Eareckson Tada

   
I know it doesn't make sense, but since when is Christmas about
sense, anyway? It is about a child, of long ago and far away, and
it is about the child of now. In you and me. Waiting behind the
door of our hearts for something wonderful to happen. A child who
is impractical, unrealistic, simple-minded and terribly vulnerable to joy.

Robert Fulghum
   

Let us pray that strength and courage abundant be given to all
who work for a world of reason and understanding, that the
good that lies in every person's heart may day by day be magnified,
that people will come to see more clearly not that which
divides them, but that which unites them, that each hour
may bring us closer to a final victory, not of nation over nation,
but of people over their own evils and weaknesses, that the
true spirit of this Christmas season--its joy, its beauty, its hope,
and above all its abiding faith--may live among us, that the
blessings of peace be ours - the peace to build and grow, to live
in harmony and sympathy with others, and to plan
for the future with confidence.

unattributed