Christmas

Do you celebrate Christmas?

This Christmas we’ll open presents, then go to grandma’s for dinner.

Be gladde, lordes, bothe more and lasse, / For this hath ordeyned our stewarde / To chere you all this christmasse / The bores heed with mustarde.

In this Winter was great death in London, wherefore the Terme was adiorned, and the king for to eſchue the plague, kept his Chriſtmaſſe at Eltham with a ſmall number, for no man might come thether, but ſuch as were appoynted by name: this Chriſtmas in the kings houſe, was called the ſtill Chriſtmaſſe.

Kinde Gentlemen, and honeſt Companions, I preſent you here with a merrie conceited Comedie, called the Shoomakers Holyday, acted by my Lorde Admiralls Players this preſent Chriſtmaſſe, before the Queenes moſt excellent Maieſtie.

Hereupon a Peace vvas concluded, vvhich vvas publiſhed a little before Chriſtmaſſe, in the Fourteenth yeare of the Kings Raigne, to continue for both the Kings liues, and the ouer-liuer of them, and a yeare after.

Chriſtmaſſe commeth but once a yeere.

[T]heſe Ships […] meet vvith Privateers, vvho reſort hither in the aforeſaid months [May to August], purpoſely to keep a Chriſtmas as they call it; being ſure to meet vvith Liquor enough to be merry vvith, and are very liberal to thoſe that treat them.

[…] I was always grateful for the sum of my week's profit, and at Christmas for that of the whole year.

The lord chancellor holds his fittings in this hall, and in former days, like the Temple, it had its revels and great Chriſtmaſſes. […] The account of the great feaſt in the hall of the Inner Temple, by the ſerjeants, in 1555, is extremely worth conſulting: and alſo of the hoſpitable Chriſtmaſſes of old times.

[A] great deal of revelry was permitted, and even encouraged, by the squire, throughout the twelve days of Christmas, provided every thing was done comformably to ancient usage. […] [T]he Yule clog, and Christmas candle, were regularly burnt, and the mistletoe, with its white berries, hung up, to the imminent peril of all the pretty housemaids.

“Lawk!” says our old granddam, who has taken the liberty of looking over our manuscript while we were gone to mix a glass of water and something. “Lawk!” says she, “how can you write such stuff? Christmas, indeed! you’ve no Christmas now. Do you call this Christmas? It’s more like a vapour bath. Such weather! Lawk, how times are changed! the Christmasses I remember! the good, old-fashioned Christmasses, when there was snow on the ground six feet deep, and poor people were starved to death by dozens, and you couldn’t go out without having your fingers frost-bitten, and coals were at six shillings a hundred, and canals froze up so that you couldn’t get your goods, and the roads all impassable, and daren’t ask a few friends to merrymake for fear of losing three or four of ’em going home in snow-drifts, and—oh, those were Christmasses! we shall never see such times again!”

[I]t was always said of him [Ebenezer Scrooge], that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed this knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!

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.

Reader have your Christmasses hitherto been marked with happiness? Thank God for it. […] Then mamma died—and later in your college days, dear Herbert, when you were both as tall as men, but as fond of play as ever—and we used to spend such happy Christmasses, till our dear father died, / “That was our first sad winter, the one which followed his death, for you remember how sadly we all missed him, and we were still in mourning—but the next one was a happy day, for Lawry was so full of spirits—and that was our last happy Christmas. Herbert darling, Lawrence has left the last impression of happiness on my memory—he, who has since broken up our domestic peace, and for a long time spoilt our Christmasses—Heaven bless him![…]”

Love came down at Christmas, / Love all lovely, Love Divine, / Love was born at Christmas, / Star and Angels gave the sign.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas / With every Christmas card I write / May your days be merry and bright / And may all your Christmases be white

Have yourself a merry little Christmas / Let your heart be light / Next year all our troubles will be out of sight

The last time I saw her was a week before Christmas, 1980. We took down a fat branch of berried Megginch holly, which we stuck in a pot for a Christmas tree, hung with silver balls and glitters. Aunt Victoria looked at it, smiled and unexpectedly said, “Christmas.” Surely she was sitting there dreaming of Christmasses long past: Christmas in the South China Sea, the Christmas lights of Hong Kong, hot Christmasses so long ago in the Anchises under the Southern Cross stars, or even longer ago of Christmasses at Megginch, singing carols round the lighted Christmas tree in the hall, while Queen Victoria’s goddaughter in her starched white dress and bronze shoes had worn the sparkling pendant given her by the great Queen.

I don't want a lot for Christmas / There is just one thing I need / I don't care about the presents / Underneath the Christmas tree / I just want you for my own / More than you could ever know / Make my wish come true / All I want for Christmas is you

This is not the first time a city in China has clamped down on Christmas merriment. Last December, Hengyang, a city in Hunan province, issued a stern notice asking Communist Party officials and their relatives to “resist the rampant Western festival.” The China Communist Youth League in Anhui wrote on social media last year that “Christmas is China’s day of shame” and represents a latter-day invasion by the West.

The last three Christmases have been good for retailers.

Christmas shoppers spent less this December than last year, but our store will probably see just as many returned items during the twelve days of Christmas.

There'll be parties for hosting / Marshmallows for toasting / And caroling out in the snow / There'll be scary ghost stories / And tales of the glories / Of Christmases long, long ago

Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year / Christmas, it's the season of good cheer / […] / Christmas is love, Christmas is love / The love of God, oh that's the marvelous thing

[T]he antient Britons employed for the decoration of their houſes, or, more properly ſpeaking, of their bovvers, branches of ever-green, in invitation to the ſpirits: a cuſtom, vvhich, hovvever the motive may be aboliſhed, is retained to this inſtant. That kind of verdure vvhich is uſed to deck the vvindovvs, and old halls, vve novv, by metonymy, call Chriſtmas.

"Vere does the mince-pies go, young opium eater?" said Mr. Weller to the fat boy, as he assisted in laying out such articles of consumption as had not been duly arranged on the previous night. The fat boy pointed to the destination of the pies. "Wery good," said Sam, "stick a bit o' Christmas in 'em.[…]"

Two of the girls carry between them on a stick what they call "the garland", […] The "garland" in shape reminds me of the "Christmas" which used to form the centre of the Christmas decorations in Yorkshire some few years ago, except that the latter had a bunch of mistletoe inside the hoops.

"Then look," said a gardener to me, "what's spent on a Christmasing the churches! Why, now, properly to Christmas St. Paul's, I say properly, mind, would take 50l. worth at least; aye, more, when I think of it, nearer 100l. I hope there'll be no 'No Popery' nonsense against Christmasing this year. I'm always sorry when anything of that kind's afloat, because it's frequently a hindrance to business."

(Moving to the holly boughs.) Come on; let's finish Christmassing the place.

Haddonfield was completely Christmased deep in December. It was lovely to see the beautifully decorated shops. Huge bows adorned the streetlamps, aerosol snow framed the windows, and people bundled up were moving in and out of the shops as the aroma of spice and clove from holiday candles scented the air.

Her labours feast imperial Night with sports, / Where loves are Christmass'd, with all pleasure's sorts; […]

The 2016 campaign via TBWA Sydney asks the question, ‘How do Australians Christmas?’ with a film to be launched today featuring global superstar and style icon, Cate Blanchett.

I've Christmased since those palmy days / In many a varied spot, / And suffered many a weary phase / Of Christmas cold and hot.

I have spent Christmas on the Severn, at Sharpness Point; in Paris, under siege, and among scenes of heartrending distress; among the Scotch hills, with Presbyterian severity, and I have Christmased in Normandy, where every tree seems green with mistletoe.

Prince Albert Victor on arrival in India will land at Bombay, and travel through Southern India, proceeding from Madras by sea to Calcutta. He will Christmas at Calcutta, and then make a tour through Bengal, and pay a visit to the frontier.

Mr. Danby never omitted his annual visits to Penlyon Place. He Christmassed there, and he Eastered there, and he knew the owner of the fine old Tudor house inside and out, his vices and his virtues, his weaknesses, and his prejudices.

André Maurois will be one of the spearheads of the Harold R[eginald] Peat list for the coming season, a result of Mr. Peat’s holiday visit to England, where he Christmassed with H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells.

Christmasing in Khartoum, writing in his Cairo study about the Al Azhar University, overseeing the publication of learned articles about Moslem medievalism, attending conferences and tea parties hosted by his former AUB students, feted constantly in many an Arab capital, and filling up his diary with descriptions of the bazaars of Lucknow and the exotic birds of Asia, [Bayard] Dodge was reaping the bounty of a life devoted to the Arabs and Moslem culture.

In particular, please keep my brother in your prayers as he Christmases in Afghanistan.

“[…] But there’s only so much joyful, greedy delight you can see in a young child’s eyes before you want to go screaming out for the nearest bar.” He tossed his handstitched, kidskin gloves onto the table top. “I’m about Christmassed-out, if you want to know.”

"The kids claim they are all Christmassed-out and have disappeared in protest."

I had done Christmas in so many ways that I was somewhat ‘Christmassed-out.

That evening, after the family, Christmased out, went early to bed, Herman brought out his unmailed letters.

Christmas muzak was pumping out, presumably to get her into the spirit of the thing. Not much chance of that, when she had felt all Christmassed out for months. Bugger off, she felt like shouting as a particularly cheesy version of ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ blared out. Look at all these people. Do any of them look bloody merry?

I notice that this is one of the very few buildings in town that hasn’t any Christmas decorations whatsoever. / “We’re a respite from Christmas, I guess,” Suze explains. “Our kids are all Christmassed out.”

"Christmas! I didn't know it," said Harvey, turning round. "I'll give you a dollar for it when I—get my wages. Say, I'll give you two dollars."

"I've been tottering on the edge … Christmas!" His eyes brightened with a sudden thought. "How stupid I've been!" he cried at once.

She said, "All right with you, Bertie?" / "Oh Christmas! he said. "I suppose so."