Thursday 13: Thirteen Christmas quotes/poems

hristmas is coming, it's getting really close! Can't you feel it? I am always amazed by how quickly the weeks after Thanksgiving zoom by until--WHAM --it's going to take a very special amount of postage to get that package where it needs to go! (Some of us just don't learn!).

To celebrate the glorious arrival of the actual holiday itself, here are 13 quotes and poem snippets to get you in the holiday mood...

1. To the American People: Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world."
-Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), American president. Presidential message (December 25, 1927)

2. The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other. -Johnny Carson

3. Christmas is a time when you get homesick--even when you're home. -Carol Nelson

4. Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.
-Oren Arnold

5. I love the Christmas-tide, and yet,
I notice this, each year I live;
I always like the gifts I get,
But how I love the gifts I give!
-Carolyn Wells

6. 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

 
7. 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.
-John Greenleaf Whittier

8. 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

10. There has been only one Christmas--the rest are anniversaries. -W.J. Cameron

11. 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. -Eric Sevareid

12. I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month. -Harlan Miller

13. We hear the beating of wings over Bethlehem and a light that is not of the sun or of the stars shines in the midnight sky. Let the beauty of the story take away all narrowness, all thought of formal creeds. Let it be remembered as a story that has happened again and again, to men of many different races, that has been expressed through many religions, that has been called by many different names. Time and space and language lay no limitations upon human brotherhood. -New York Times, 25 December 1937

Ah, Christmas... thanks for coming around and reminding us about all the really important stuff...

Here's a last-minute bonus posted by a friend on Facebook today:
Preparing for the holidays is primarily a preparing of the heart. Because what comes down is love and the way to receive love isn’t to wrap anything up--but to unwrap your heart. -Ann Voskamp

Lovely. I'm ready to unwrap my heart and a few other things too! Ha.

Got a Christmas quote to share? I'd love to hear it.

For more Thursday 13s, go here.