Letting the season last… reflecting on the meaning and the fun…
“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
“Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts.” — Janice Maeditere
“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
“Christmas is not just a time for festivity and merry making. It is more than that. It is a time for the contemplation of eternal things. The Christmas spirit is a spirit of giving and forgiving.” — J. C. Penney
“Christmas can be celebrated in the school room with pine trees, tinsel and reindeers, but there must be no mention of the man whose birthday is being celebrated. One wonders how a teacher would answer if a student asked why it was called Christmas.” ― Ronald Reagan
“Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special! How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food, and beer… Who’d have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment, and spirituality would mix so harmoniously?” ― Bill Watterson
“Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.” — Dale Evans
“Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store.” — Dr. Seuss
“I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it, saying, ‘Toys not included.’ ” — Bernard Manning
“He who has no Christmas in his heart will never find Christmas under a tree.” — Charlotte Carpenter
“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” — Charles Dickens
“The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.” — George Carlin
“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
“Off to one side sits a group of shepherds. They sit silently on the floor, perhaps perplexed, perhaps in awe, no doubt in amazement. Their night watch had been interrupted by an explosion of light from heaven and a symphony of angels. God goes to those who have time to hear him–and so on this cloudless night he went to simple shepherds.” — Max Lucado
“Look for Christ and you will find Him. And with Him, everything else.” – C.S. Lewis
And a portion of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s message, to be repeated often and soon:
“And in despair I bowed my head;
‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said;
‘For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!’
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
‘God is not dead, nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
the Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!’ “
May the truths of the season stay with us all year long.
Respectfully…
AR