I'M A SONIC BOOMER: 71 Christmas and Holiday Quotes for this time of year

When I was young, I had a choice between getting a Christmas present or a birthday present. (My birthday is very close to Xmas.) When my children were young, Christmas became a special holiday for the family. Over the years Christmas, the magic of the season has become more important. So, this year I have put together a quote about the holiday for each year I have been lucky enough to be on this planet. I hope you find them interesting. As you read these you may notice a number of quotes by the same author. Charles Dickens is one of my favourite authors and I find his words about the holiday powerful. Enjoy

Steve Maraboli, “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.”
Dr. Seuss, “Christmas will always be as long as we stand heart to heart and hand in hand”
Theodor Seuss Geisel, “Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas . . . perhaps . . .means a little bit more!"
Benjamin Franklin, “A good conscience is a continual Christmas.”
Benjamin Franklin, “How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts!”
Taylor Caldwell, “This is the message of Christmas: We are never alone.”
Taylor Caldwell, “I 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.”
Calvin Coolidge, "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."
Eric Sevareid, "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."
Carrie Fisher, "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."
Dale Evans, “Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.”
Washington Irving, "Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart."
Peg Bracken, "Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas."
Winston Churchill, “Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection”
Winston Churchill, “Let 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.”
Norman Vincent Peale, “Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”
Norman Vincent Peale, “I truly believe that if we keep telling the Christmas story, singing the Christmas songs, and living the Christmas spirit, we can bring joy and happiness and peace to this world.”
Albert Einstein, “Nothing that I can do will change the structure of the universe. But maybe, by raising my voice I can help the greatest of all causes – goodwill among men and peace on earth.”
Helen Keller, “The only real blind person at Christmas-time is he who has no Christmas in his heart.”
Kathleen M. Carroll, “This Christmas, celebrate the season as though it were your last. One day, you’ll be right.”
Charles Dickens “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”
Charles Dickens, “Time was with most of us, when Christmas Day, encircling all our limited world like a magic ring, left nothing out for us to miss or seek; bound together all our home enjoyments, affections, and hopes; grouped everything and everyone round the Christ.”
Charles Dickens, “I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”
Charles Dickens, “Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!”
Charles Dickens, “Christmas is a time in which, of all times in the year, the memory of every remediable sorrow, wrong, and trouble in the world around us, should be active with us, not less than our own experiences, for all good.”
Charles M. Schulz, “Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.”
Edna Ferber, “Christmas isn't a season. It's a feeling.”
Brigham Young, "Love the giver more than the gift."
Bob Hope "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, “When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things — not the great occasions — give off the greatest glow of happiness.”
Author unknown, “Through the years we all will be together, If the Fates allow, hang a shining star upon the highest bough, and have yourself a merry little Christmas now”
Author unknown, “Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents & listen.”
Julie Heber, “Christmas is for everyone, adults and children alike. Allow this season fill your heart, and let go of the things you dislike.”
Malaika Arora Khan, “For 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.”
Emily Matthews, “From home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another. The warmth and joy of Christmas, brings us closer to each other.”
Emily Matthews, “Good friends have a way of bringing out the best in you by their caring and the interest that they take in all you do
Ronald Reagan, “Christmas is a holiday that we celebrate not as individuals nor as a nation, but as a human family.”
Alexander Smith, “Christmas is the day that holds all time together.”
Thomas S. Monson, “The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of love and of generosity and of goodness. It illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world's busy life and become more interested in people than in things.”
Louisa May Alcott, “Very gay they were with snow and sleigh-bells, holly-boughs, and garlands, below, and Christmas sunshine in the winter sky above. All faces shone, all voices had a cheery ring, and everybody stepped briskly on errands of good-will.”
Carol Nelson, “Christmas is a time when you get homesick — even when you're home.”
Roy L. Smith, “He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.”
W.J. Cameron, “Christmas is the gentlest, loveliest festival of the revolving year — and yet, for all that, when it speaks, its voice has strong authority.”
Burton Hillis, “The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.”
Andy Rooney, “One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly.”
Andy Rooney, “The best Christmas trees come very close to exceeding nature.”
Francis C. Farley, “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 man has to be himself.”
W.T. Ellis, “It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.”
W.J. Ronald Tucker, “For centuries men have kept an appointment with Christmas. Christmas means fellowship, feasting, giving and receiving, a time of good cheer, home.”
Joan Winmill Brown, Christmas! The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given — when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes.”
Ada V. Hendricks, “May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope; The spirit of Christmas which is peace; The heart of Christmas which is love.”
Agnes M. Pahro, “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.”
Donald Westlak, “As 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.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “I heard the bells on Christmas Day; their old familiar carols play, and wild and sweet the word repeat of peace on earth, good-will to men!'
Ruth Carter Stapleton, “Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most.”
Edward Rowland Sill, “I send my thoughts afar, and let them paint your Christmas Day at home”
J.K. Rowling, “One can never have enough socks," said Dumbledore. "Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.”
Dave Barry, “In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukkah' and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukkah!' or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall!”
Ernest Hemingway, “If my Valentine you won't be, I'll hang myself on your Christmas tree.”
Philip Yancey, “Yet as I read the birth stories about Jesus I cannot help but conclude that though the world may be tilted toward the rich and powerful, God is tilted toward the underdog.”
Robert Lynd, “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.”
G.K. Chesterton, “Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.”
Richard Paul Evans, “The universe is a trillion, trillion threads moving in seemingly unrelated directions. Yet when you look at them together, they create a remarkable tapestry.”
Kiersten White, “Christmas Eve is my favorite... I think the anticipation is more fun than anything else. I kind of lost that. The idea that something - food, traditions, an arbitrary date on the calendar - can be special because we decide it should be. We make it special. Not just for ourselves, but for others.”
Barbara Kingsolver, “Like kids who only ever get socks for Christmas, but still believe with all their hearts in Santa.”
Frederick Buechner , “And now brothers, I will ask you a terrible question, and God knows I ask it also of myself. Is the truth beyond all truths, beyond the stars, just this: that to live without him is the real death, that to die with him the only life
Bess Streeter Aldrich, “Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart... filled it, too, with a melody that would last forever. Even though you grew up and found you could never quite bring back the magic feeling of this night, the melody would stay in your heart always - a song for all the years.”
Bess Streeter Aldrich, “A person may encircle the globe with mind open only to bodily comfort. Another may live his life on a sixty-foot lot and listen to the voices of the universe.”
Gladys Taber, “Christmas 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.”
Joan Mills, “Christmas is the keeping-place for memories of our innocence.”
Thomas Tusser, “At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year.”