Christmas is…

“What is Christmas?” asks Agnes Pharo. “ 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. “

However, far from that definition, we usually hear many say that Christmas is for children who believe in Santa Claus. For which, I would readily disagree. It is lamentable that we somehow have really forgotten its real meaning huh.

Here a few quotes about Christmas that you might want to reflect on. But wait –not all of these witty quotes reflect what Christmas is. Just make them a starting point for a meaningful reflection will ya.

There is no ideal Christmas; only the one Christmas you decide to make
as a reflection of your values, desires, affections, traditions.
~Bill McKibben

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 waves a magic wand over this world, and behold,
everything is softer and more beautiful.
~Norman Vincent Peale

The only blind person at Christmastime is he who has not Christmas in his heart.
~Helen Keller

Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart,
a wide open heart that thinks of others first.
The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history,
because it has meant the pouring into a sick world of the healing medicine of love
which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years...
Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart.
~George Mathhew Adams

Probably the reason we all go so haywire at Christmas time with the endless unrestrained and often silly buying of gifts is that we don't quite know how to put our love into words.
~Harlan Miller

Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.
~Mary Ellen Chase

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
~Charles Dickens, Ebeneezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol

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

Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles.
~Unknown

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.
~Harlan Miller (Better Homes and Gardens)

If there is no joyous way to give a festive gift, give love away.
~Unknown

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.
~Hamilton Wright Mabi

Christmas ... is not an eternal event at all,
but a piece of one's home that one carries in one's heart.
~Freya Stark ("The Wise Men" Time and Tide)

Finally…from Charles Dickens again:

It was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well,
if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!
And so, as Tiny Tim observed, "God Bless Us, Every One!"