Quotation Saturday: Christmas Version

Quotation Saturday: Christmas Version

Mamacita says:

1.  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

2.  The only real blind person at Christmas-time is he who has no Christmas in his heart.  –Helen Keller

3.  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

4.  Of course, this is the season to be jolly, but it is also a good time to be thinking about those who aren’t.  –Helen Valentine

5.  When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things – not the great occasions – give off the greatest glow of happiness.  –Bob Hope

6.  What is Christmas?  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.  –Agnes M. Pharo

7.  We should try to hold on to the Christmas spirit, not just one day a year, but 365.  –Mary Martin

8.  Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it “white.”  –Bing Crosby

9.  There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.  –Erma Bombeck

10.   May we not “spend” Christmas or “observe” Christmas, but rather “keep” it.  –Peter Marshall

11.  A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.  –Garrison Keillor

12.  Late on a sleepy, star-spangleed night, those angels peeled back the sky just like you would tear open a sparkling Christmas present.  Then, with light and joy pouring out of Heaven like water through a broken dam, they began to shou and sing the message that baby Jesus had been born.  The world had a Savior!  The angels called “Good News,” and it was.  –Larry Libby

13.  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.  And thus I drift along into the holidays – let them overtake me unexpectedly – waking up some find morning and suddenly saying to myself:  “Why, this is Christmas Day!”  –David Grayson

14.  . . . God’s visit to earth took place in an animal shelter with no attendants present and nowhere to lay the newborn king but a feed trough. . . For just an instant the sky grew luminous with angels, yet who saw the spectacle?  Illiterate hirelings who watched the flocks of others, “nobodies” who failed to leave their names. . . .  –Philip Yancy

15.  Christmas isn’t just a day.  It’s a frame of mind.  –Valentine Davies

16.  Christmas, my child, is love in action.  Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.  –Dale Evans

17.  Remember, if Christmas isn’t found in your heart, you won’t find it under a tree.  –Charlotte Carpenter

18.  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

19.  My first copies of Treasure Island and Huckleberry Finn still have some blue-spruce needles in the pages.  They smell of Christmas still.  –Charlton Heston

20.  They err who thinks Santa Claus comes down through the chimney; he really enters through the heart.  –Mrs. Paul M. Ell

21.  The perfect Christmas tree?  All Christmas trees are perfect!  –Charles N. Barnard

22.  This is the message of Christmas:  We are never alone.  –Taylor Caldwell

23.  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

24.  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, withi melody that would last forever.  –Bess Streeter Aldrich

25.  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

26.  Which Christmas is the most vivid to me?  It’s always the next Christmas.  –Joanne Woodward

27.  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

28.  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

29.  Christmas is the keeping place for memories of our innocence.  –Joan Mills

30.  Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.  –Hamilton Wright Mabie

31.  So here comes Gabriel again, and what he says is “Good tidings of great joy. . . for all people.”  That’s why the shepherds are first:  they represent all the nameless, all the working stiffs, the great wheeling population of the whole world.  –Walter Wangerin Jr.

32.  Christmas is the day that holds all time together.  –Alexander Smith

33.  A Christmas candle is a lovely thing.  It makes no noise at all.  But softly gives itself away, While quite unselfish, it grows small.  –Eva K. Logue

34.  Christmas is not an eternal event at all, but a piece of one’s home that one carries in one’s heart.  –Freya Stark

35.  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

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

37.  Christmas is the time to let your heart do the thinking.  –Patricia Clafford

38.  Christmas is for children.  But it is for grownups, too.  Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts.  –Lenora Mattingly Weber

39.  Christmas Day is a day of joy and charity.  May God make you very rich in both.  –Phillips Brooks

40.  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

41.  The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree:  the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.  –Burton Hillis

42.  So if a Christian is touched only once a year, the touching is still worth it, and maybe on some given Christmas, some quiet morning, the touch will take.  –Harry Reasoner

43.  A scientist said, making a plea for exchange scholarships between nations, “The very best way to send an idea is to wrap it up in a person.”  That was what happened at Christmas.  The idea of divine love was wrapped up in a Person.  –Halford E. Luccock

44.  As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December’s bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same.  –Donald E. Westlake

45.  Ask your children two questions this Christmas.  First:  “What do you want to give to others for Christmas?”  Second:  What do you want for Christmas?”  The first fosters generosity of heart and an outward focus.  The second can breed selfishness if not tempered by the first.  –Anonymous

46.  Christmas has lost its meaning for us because we have lost the spirit of expectancy.  We cannot prepare for an observance.  We must prepare for an experience.  –Handel H. Brown

47.  In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it ‘Christmas’ and went to church; the Jews called it ‘Hanukka’ and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank.  People passing each other on the street would say ‘Merry Christmas!” or “Happy Hanukka!’ or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!”  –Dave Barry

48.  Nothing’s as mean as giving a little child something useful for Christmas.  –Kin Hubbard

49.  Selfishness makes Christmas a burden.  Love makes it a delight.  –Unknown

50.  When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time.  Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?  –Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Quotation Saturday: Christmas Version

Credo at Christmas

At Christmas time I believe the things that children do.I believe with English children that holly placed in windows will protect our homes from evil.

I believe with Swiss children that the touch of edelweiss will charm a person with love.

I believe with Italian children that La Befana is not an ugly doll but a good fairy who will gladden the heart of all.

I believe with Greek children that coins concealed in freshly baked loaves of bread will bring good luck to anyone who finds them.

I believe with German children that the sight of a Christmas tree will lessen hostility among adults.

I believe with French children that lentils soaked and planted in a bowl will rekindle life in people who have lost hope.

I believe with Dutch children that the horse Sleipner will fly through the sky and fill the earth with joy.

I believe with Swedish children that Jultomte will come and deliver gifts to the poor as well as to the rich.

I believe with Finnish children that parties held on St.Stephen’s Day will erase sorrow.

I believe with Danish children that the music of a band playing from a church tower will strengthen humankind.

I believe with Bulgarian children that sparks from a Christmas log will create warmth in human souls.

I believe with American children that the sending of Christmas cards will build friendships.

I believe with all children that there will be peace on earth.

–by Daniel Roselle

P.S.  The newest Carnival of Education is up, over at Steve Spangler’s Blog.

Quotation Saturday: Christmas Version

Ten Things Tuesday

Mamacita says:

1.  We’re supposed to be on the receiving end of a mighty and majestic ice storm tonight.  I hope not.  I’ve got candy canes for my students tomorrow.  I am hoping, since so many of them didn’t do well on the final, that when they look at their test and the “This sucks!” begins, I can then hand them each a candy cane and say “Suck on this.  It’ll make you feel better.”

2.  Cocoa, coffee, hot cider, and hot tea are all better when stirred with a candy cane or a cinnamon stick.

3.  Want to give your child a cool snack?  Take a candy cane and stick it right through the peel of an orange.  Tell the kid to start sucking.  After a few minutes, the orange juice will start coming up the candy cane as if it were a straw, and when it does, it’s delicious.  We call these “stabbed oranges,” because we are classy people.  Unless your child cheats and pulls off some of the peeling, this snack lasts a long time and isn’t a bit sticky or messy.  Unless your child cheats.  It’s also good for you, and demonstrates how much air is in a candy cane.  (Answer:  a lot.)

4.  Speaking of really good cocoa. . . pour some vanilla into a teaspoon, then pour the vanilla back into the bottle.  Stir your cocoa with the vanilla-coated spoon.  It’s illegally good.  You can also dip plastic spoons in Wilton’s chocolate and let it harden.   Put Saran wrap around the spoon’s bowl and tie it with a festive ribbon.  Voila!  Really inexpensive gifts, placecard holders, favors, or whatever you want.

5.  Speaking again of really good cocoa, coffee, or any hot drink. . . put ribbon candy on strings and dip it like a tea bag into your hot drink.  Yummy.  Have “whose colors will melt off the quickest” contests.

6.  Sometimes, the very best recipes are found on the backs of packages and boxes, and in cookbooks compiled and sold by church ladies.

7.  I think I would get along famously with LuAnn’s mom.

8.  I am Val Stone.

9.  My oven is full of homemade bread.  Six more loaves are in the wings, waiting their turn.  I haven’t got any money right now, and I wanted to give the people in my department a little something for  Christmas whatever holiday, or not, they might be happy about this month.  Most people seem to like homemade bread.  Except for my kids; they prefer 99-cent Kroger bread.

10.  You know how some people claim that online friendships are not real friendships?  Well, those people are wrong.

I am Mamacita. Accept no substitutes!

Hitting the fan like no one else can...

Creative Commons License
Scheiss Weekly by Jane Goodwin (Mamacita) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.