75 Quotes That Show the Magic of Christmas (2024)

What would later be regarded as as one of the most widely recognized staples of the Christmas season, English writer and social critic Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 1843. In its original prose, it reads, “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!”

Children’s author Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, wrote in How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, “Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. / Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!”

“The smells of Christmas are the smells of childhood,” New York Times bestselling author Richard Paul Evans wrote in his most popular novel, The Christmas Box.

English author Dorothy Koomson wrote in her 2006 novel My Best Friend’s Girl “Christmas is a time for families."

Traced back to 1878, American poet and author Margaret Elizabeth Sangster wrote in her poem “The Christmas Tree,” “For 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.”

Bess Streeter Aldrich wrote in Journey Into Christmas and Other Stories, “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 melody that would last forever.”

“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,” Young Adult author Kiersten White was quoted saying in the collections of short stories My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories, edited by Stephanie Perkins.

New York Times journalist John Geddes wrote “...freshly cut Christmas trees smelling of stars and snow and pine resin - inhale deeply and fill your soul with wintry night...” in his book, A Familiar Rain.

“It's easy to forget that life is the greatest gift of all,” Karlie Perrin wrote in her novel, The Gift.

“The magical dust of Christmas glittered on the cheeks of humanity ever so briefly, reminding us of what is worth having and what we were intended to be,” author and Texas Pastor Max Lucado said in his book God Came Near.

“In your hurry to keep Christmas, you have forgotten Christmas. The truest gift of Christmas is the gift of self” The Christmas Box author Richard Paul wrote in his picture book The Light of Christmas.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow author Washington Irving wrote “[Christmas] is the season for kindling, not merely the fire of hospitality in the hall, but the genial flame of charity in the heart,” in the first chapter of his book of holiday essays Old Christmas.

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home,” British poet Edith Sitwell wrote in Taken Care Of: The Autobiography Of Edith Sitwell.

“But I am sure that I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round...as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant 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,” Charles Dickens wrote in A Christmas Carol: Being a Ghost Story of Christmas.

“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,” American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Ray Stannard Baker wrote in his book Adventures in Friendship.

In a poem that she wrote for the 2005 White House tree lighting ceremony entitled “Amazing Grace,” acclaimed American poet, author, and activist Maya Angelou wrote, “Into this climate of fear and apprehension, Christmas enters, / Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope / And singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air. / The world is encouraged to come away from rancor, / Come the way of friendship.”

Lebanese writer Kahlil Gibran wrote “There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward,” in his book The Prophet.

Novelist Carlos Ruiz Zafón wrote “Presents are made for the pleasure of who gives them, not the merits of who receives them” in the New York Times bestseller The Shadow of the Wind.

Professor, Researcher and author Brené Brown said in her book, The Gifts of Imperfections, “Until we can receive with an open heart, we are never really giving with an open heart.”