Christmas quotes get copied onto cards, captions and year-end posts, and a surprising number of them are fuzzy, shortened, or pinned to the wrong person. I wanted a list I could stand behind: 72 Christmas quotes you can actually find in a book, a speech, a poem or the Bible, with the wording checked against a source, not a meme.
You’ll find Dickens and the Grinch, Luke 2 and a 1927 message from Calvin Coolidge, family lines from Little Women, and a few poems that still work when the house finally goes quiet. The point is not to collect everything ever said about December. It’s to keep the lines that still mean something when you read them slowly. The ones about giving, gratitude, home and peace.
Christmas Quotes: The Meaning of the Season
1. “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
Source: Presidential Christmas message, 25 Dec 1927, as printed in TIME, 2 Jan 1928; also Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation
2. “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.” – Charles Dickens
Source: A Christmas Carol, Stave Four, Project Gutenberg ebook 46
3. “Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas… perhaps… means a little bit more!” – Dr. Seuss
Source: How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Random House, 1957); wording confirmed via Dartmouth’s 2014 citation of the book
4. “It is a good thing to observe Christmas day. The mere marking of times and seasons, when men agree to stop work and make merry together, is a wise and wholesome custom. But there is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day, and that is, keeping Christmas.” – Henry van Dyke
Source: “Keeping Christmas,” in The Spirit of Christmas (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905), Project Gutenberg ebook 14572
5. “Of all the old festivals, however, that of Christmas awakens the strongest and most heartfelt associations. There is a tone of solemn and sacred feeling that blends with our conviviality and lifts the spirit to a state of hallowed and elevated enjoyment.” – Washington Irving
Source: “Christmas,” in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., Project Gutenberg ebook 2048
6. “I have often thought, says Sir Roger, it happens very well that Christmas should fall in the Middle of winter.” – Joseph Addison
Source: The Spectator, January 1712, as cited on Wikiquote’s Christmas page
7. “Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world… are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.” – Henry van Dyke
Source: “Keeping Christmas,” in The Spirit of Christmas (1905), Project Gutenberg ebook 14572
8. “And 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!” – Charles Dickens
Source: A Christmas Carol, Stave Five, Project Gutenberg ebook 46
9. “And what happened then…? Well…in Who-ville they say That the Grinch’s small heart Grew three sizes that day!” – Dr. Seuss
Source: How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Random House, 1957)
10. “Christmas is more like a front door left open than a gift wrapped perfect. You don’t have to earn your way in. You just have to come home.” – Joel Brown
Source: Joel Brown originals sent 2026-11-13
Christmas Quotes: Giving, Charity and an Open Hand
11. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business.” – Charles Dickens
Source: A Christmas Carol, Stave One (Marley’s Ghost), Project Gutenberg ebook 46
12. “The magi, as you know, were wise men—wonderfully wise men—who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents.” – O. Henry
Source: The Gift of the Magi (1905), Project Gutenberg ebook 7256
13. “Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.” – O. Henry
Source: The Gift of the Magi (1905), Project Gutenberg ebook 7256
14. “It is, indeed, the season of regenerated feeling—the season for kindling not merely the fire of hospitality in the hall, but the genial flame of charity in the heart.” – Washington Irving
Source: “Christmas,” in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., Project Gutenberg ebook 2048
15. “I am sure 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
Source: A Christmas Carol, Stave One (Fred, Scrooge’s nephew), Project Gutenberg ebook 46
16. “I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.” – Charles Dickens
Source: A Christmas Carol, Stave One (Marley’s Ghost), Project Gutenberg ebook 46
17. “To own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life.” – Henry van Dyke
Source: “Keeping Christmas,” in The Spirit of Christmas (1905), Project Gutenberg ebook 14572
18. “And if you keep it for a day, why not always? But you can never keep it alone.” – Henry van Dyke
Source: “Keeping Christmas,” in The Spirit of Christmas (1905), Project Gutenberg ebook 14572
19. “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.” – Matthew 2:11, King James Version
Source: Matthew 2:11 KJV, Bible Gateway
20. “What can I give Him, / Poor as I am? / If I were a shepherd / I would bring a lamb, / If I were a wise man / I would do my part,— / Yet what I can I give Him, / Give my heart.” – Christina Rossetti
Source: “A Christmas Carol” (often called “In the Bleak Midwinter”), last stanza; Project Gutenberg Poems and Wikisource (poem published 1872)
21. “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” – 2 Corinthians 9:15, King James Version
Source: 2 Corinthians 9:15 KJV, Bible Gateway
22. “Before you spend $300 on gifts to prove you care, call the person who has been quiet since last Christmas. That call might be the only gift they remember.” – Joel Brown
Source: Joel Brown originals sent 2026-11-13
Christmas Quotes: Home, Family and Children
23. “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents.” – Louisa May Alcott
Source: Little Women, Chapter 1, spoken by Jo, Project Gutenberg ebook 514
24. “We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other.” – Louisa May Alcott
Source: Little Women, Chapter 1, spoken by Beth, Project Gutenberg ebook 514
25. “For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself.” – Charles Dickens
Source: A Christmas Carol, Stave Three, Project Gutenberg ebook 46
26. “God bless us every one!” – Charles Dickens
Source: A Christmas Carol, Stave Three, Tiny Tim, Project Gutenberg ebook 46
27. “This festival, which commemorates the announcement of the religion of peace and love, has been made the season for gathering together of family connections, and drawing closer again those bands of kindred hearts which the cares and pleasures and sorrows of the world are continually operating to cast loose.” – Washington Irving
Source: “Christmas,” in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., Project Gutenberg ebook 2048
28. “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.” – Francis Pharcellus Church
Source: “Is There a Santa Claus?”, The New York Sun, 21 September 1897, as transcribed on Wikiquote
29. “Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no child-like faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.” – Francis Pharcellus Church
Source: “Is There a Santa Claus?”, The New York Sun, 21 September 1897, Wikiquote transcription
30. “No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.” – Francis Pharcellus Church
Source: “Is There a Santa Claus?”, The New York Sun, 21 September 1897, Wikiquote transcription
31. “’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house / Not a creature was stirring,—not even a mouse: / The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, / In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.” – Clement Clarke Moore (traditional attribution)
Source: A Visit from St. Nicholas (first published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel, 23 Dec 1823); text as on Wikiquote / Moore’s page
32. “But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight — / Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!” – Clement Clarke Moore (traditional attribution)
Source: A Visit from St. Nicholas, closing couplet, Wikiquote / Moore
33. “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” – Luke 2:19, King James Version
Source: Luke 2:19 KJV, Bible Gateway
34. “I’m sorry to tell you but a perfect Christmas table won’t fix a family that doesn’t talk the other 364 days.” – Joel Brown
Source: Joel Brown originals sent 2026-11-13
35. “Years from now, nobody will remember what you bought them. They’ll remember if you were laughing, present, and not checking your email at the table.” – Joel Brown
Source: Joel Brown originals sent 2026-11-13
Christmas Quotes: Scripture and the Nativity
36. “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” – Luke 2:7, King James Version
Source: Luke 2:7 KJV, Bible Gateway
37. “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” – Luke 2:10, King James Version
Source: Luke 2:10 KJV, Bible Gateway
38. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” – Luke 2:11, King James Version
Source: Luke 2:11 KJV, Bible Gateway
39. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” – Luke 2:14, King James Version
Source: Luke 2:14 KJV, Bible Gateway
40. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” – Isaiah 9:6, King James Version
Source: Isaiah 9:6 KJV, Bible Gateway
41. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14, King James Version
Source: John 1:14 KJV, Bible Gateway
42. “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” – Matthew 1:21, King James Version
Source: Matthew 1:21 KJV, Bible Gateway
43. “When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.” – Matthew 2:10, King James Version
Source: Matthew 2:10 KJV, Bible Gateway
44. “Hark! the herald angels sing, / Glory to the newborn King; / Peace on earth, and mercy mild, / God and sinners reconciled!” – Charles Wesley
Source: Hymn ‘Hark! How All the Welkin Rings’ (1739), in the later commonly sung wording noted by Wikiquote
45. “Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world—stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death—and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas.” – Henry van Dyke
Source: “Keeping Christmas,” in The Spirit of Christmas (1905), Project Gutenberg ebook 14572
46. “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” – Matthew 1:23, King James Version
Source: Matthew 1:23 KJV, Bible Gateway
47. “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” – Isaiah 7:14, King James Version
Source: Isaiah 7:14 KJV, Bible Gateway
48. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” – John 3:16, King James Version
Source: John 3:16 KJV, Bible Gateway
49. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” – Galatians 4:4-5, King James Version
Source: Galatians 4:4-5 KJV, Bible Gateway
50. “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” – Micah 5:2, King James Version
Source: Micah 5:2 KJV, Bible Gateway
51. “And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” – Luke 1:31-33, King James Version
Source: Luke 1:31-33 KJV, Bible Gateway
Christmas Quotes: Peace, Joy and the Year’s End
When the noise drops, a lot of these lines turn toward peace, not as a caption, but as something you hope still holds after the year you just had.
52. “I heard the bells on Christmas Day / Their old, familiar carols play, / And wild and sweet / The words repeat / Of peace on earth, good-will to men!” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Source: “Christmas Bells,” in The Complete Poetical Works, Project Gutenberg ebook 1365
53. “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!”” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Source: “Christmas Bells,” Project Gutenberg ebook 1365
54. “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world.” – Charles Dickens
Source: A Christmas Carol, Stave Five (Scrooge, Christmas morning), Project Gutenberg ebook 46
55. “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour.” – Charles Dickens
Source: A Christmas Carol, Stave Three, Project Gutenberg ebook 46
56. “At Christmas play, and make good cheer, / For Christmas comes but once a year.” – Thomas Tusser
Source: Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, as cited on Wikiquote’s Christmas page
57. “England was merry England, when / Old Christmas brought his sports again. / ‘Twas Christmas broach’d the mightiest ale; / ‘Twas Christmas told the merriest tale; / A Christmas gambol oft could cheer / The poor man’s heart through half the year.” – Walter Scott
Source: Marmion (1808), Canto VI, Introduction, as cited on Wikiquote’s Christmas page
58. “The time draws near the birth of Christ: / The moon is hid; the night is still; / The Christmas bells from hill to hill / Answer each other in the mist.” – Alfred Tennyson
Source: In Memoriam A.H.H. (1849), section XXVIII, as cited on Wikiquote’s Christmas page
59. “At Christmas I no more desire a rose, / Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth.” – William Shakespeare
Source: Love’s Labour’s Lost (c. 1595–96), Act I, scene 1, as cited on Wikiquote’s Christmas page
60. “A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!” – Charles Dickens
Source: A Christmas Carol, Stave Three, Bob Cratchit, Project Gutenberg ebook 46
61. “Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and the desires of little children; to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you, and ask yourself whether you love them enough… are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.” – Henry van Dyke
Source: “Keeping Christmas,” in The Spirit of Christmas (1905), Project Gutenberg ebook 14572
62. “Joy to the world! the Lord is come; / Let earth receive her King. / Let ev’ry heart prepare Him room, / And heav’n and nature sing.” – Isaac Watts
Source: “Joy to the World,” stanza 1, based on Psalm 98 (1719), as given on Wikiquote
Christmas Quotes About Faith: The Incarnation and the Carols
The older carols and the theologians keep returning to the same claim: Christmas is not only a mood. It is the claim that God came near.
63. “O little town of Bethlehem, / How still we see thee lie! / Above thy deep and dreamless sleep / The silent stars go by; / Yet in thy dark streets shineth / The everlasting Light; / The hopes and fears of all the years / Are met in thee to-night.” – Phillips Brooks
Source: “O Little Town of Bethlehem” (1868), first stanza, as given on Wikiquote (Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed., 1919)
64. “In the bleak mid-winter / Frosty wind made moan, / Earth stood hard as iron, / Water like a stone; / Snow had fallen, snow on snow, / Snow on snow, / In the bleak mid-winter / Long ago.” – Christina Rossetti
Source: “A Christmas Carol” (often called “In the Bleak Midwinter”), first stanza, published 1872; Project Gutenberg Poems and Wikisource
65. “Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him / Nor earth sustain; / Heaven and earth shall flee away / When He comes to reign: / In the bleak mid-winter / A stable-place sufficed / The Lord God Almighty / Jesus Christ.” – Christina Rossetti
Source: “A Christmas Carol” (often called “In the Bleak Midwinter”), second stanza, published 1872; Project Gutenberg Poems
66. “Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! / Hail the Sun of Righteousness!” – Charles Wesley
Source: “Hymn for Christmas-Day” (1739), in the later familiar wording noted on Wikiquote
67. “He rules the world with truth and grace, / And makes the nations prove / The glories of His righteousness, / And wonders of His love.” – Isaac Watts
Source: “Joy to the World,” stanza 4 (1719), as given on Wikiquote
68. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” – Philippians 2:5-8, King James Version
Source: Philippians 2:5-8 KJV, Bible Gateway
69. “Christianity does not involve the belief that all things were made for man. It does involve the belief that God loves man and for his sake became man and died.” – C. S. Lewis
Source: Miracles (1947), Chapter 7, “A Chapter of Red Herrings,” as given on Wikiquote
70. “I accept this supposed missing chapter, the Incarnation, I find it begins to illuminate the whole of the rest of the manuscript. It lights up Nature’s pattern of death and rebirth; and, secondly, her selectiveness; and, thirdly, her vicariousness.” – C. S. Lewis
Source: “The Grand Miracle,” in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (Eerdmans, 1970), pp. 81, 86, as given on Wikiquote
71. “For He was made man that we might be made God; and He manifested Himself by a body that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured the insolence of men that we might inherit immortality.” – Athanasius of Alexandria
Source: On the Incarnation (De Incarnatione) 54.3, NPNF translation at New Advent
72. “Let us not flutter too high, but remain by the manger and the swaddling clothes of Christ, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” – Martin Luther
Source: Table Talk (Tischreden, 1569), no. 50, as given on Wikiquote; the closing clause echoes Colossians 2:9
FAQ: Christmas Quotes
What are the best Christmas quotes?
The best Christmas quotes are the ones you can source. This list keeps 72 verified lines, including Dickens on keeping Christmas all year, Coolidge’s 1927 message that Christmas is a state of mind, the Grinch on Christmas meaning “a little bit more,” and the Nativity verses in Luke 2.
What is a famous Bible verse for Christmas?
The verses people return to most are in Luke 2. In the King James Version, Luke 2:11 reads, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord,” and Luke 2:14 reads, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Isaiah 9:6 and John 1:14 are often read alongside them.
What is a good Christmas quote about giving?
Marley’s Ghost in A Christmas Carol says, “Mankind was my business.” O. Henry, at the end of The Gift of the Magi, writes that the magi “invented the art of giving Christmas presents,” and that the two who gave everything for each other “are the magi.” Henry van Dyke puts it more bluntly: you can never keep Christmas alone.
What are some Christmas quotes about the birth of Jesus besides the Bible?
Beside the Nativity verses, this list keeps public-domain carols such as Isaac Watts’s “Joy to the World” (1719), Phillips Brooks’s “O Little Town of Bethlehem” (1868), and Christina Rossetti’s “In the Bleak Midwinter” (1872), along with sourced lines from C. S. Lewis, Athanasius, and Martin Luther on the Incarnation.
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