The best literary quotes about Christmas

Christmas is a time of goodwill and good cheer, with a little sprinkling of magic. It comes but once a year and yet it is a season of endless inspiration for writers, new and old. 

And so, we've rounded up some of our favourite quotes that sum up what makes the festive period so merry and bright. 

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”

– Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

“I ask you to answer me fairly: is not additional eating an ordinary Englishman’s ordinary idea of Christmas day?”

– Anthony Trollope, Orley Farm

“The rooms were very still while the pages were softly turned and the winter sunshine crept in to touch the bright heads and serious faces with a Christmas greeting.”

– Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“In the night the snow came. She awoke on Christmas morning in that unmistakeable light, coming up from the earth and shining between her curtains.”

– Stella Gibbons, Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm

“The week before Christmas, when snow seemed to lie thickest, was the moment for carol-singing; and when I think back to those nights it is to the crunch of snow and to the lights of the lanterns on it”

– Laurie Lee, Cider With Rosie

“I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.”

– Maya Angelou

“Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.”

– Charles M. Schulz

“Christmas! ‘Tis the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.”

– Washington Irving

“Fine old Christmas, with the snowy hair and ruddy face, had done his duty that year in the noblest fashion, and had set off his rich gifts of warmth and color with all the heightening contrast of frost and snow.”

– George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss

“It being Christmas eve, there was, as I had forseen, a great deal of revelry and what not.”

– P.G. Wodehouse, Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit

“Christmas always rustled. It rustled every time, mysteriously, with silver and gold paper, tissue paper and a rich abundance of shiny paper, decorating and hiding everything and giving a feeling reckless extravagance.”

– Tove Jansson, Sculptor's Daughter

“This is quite the season indeed for friendly meetings. At Christmas every body invites their friends about them, and people think little of even the worst weather. I was snowed up at a friend’s house once for a week. Nothing could be pleasanter.”

– Jane Austen, Emma

“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmastime.”

– Laura Ingalls Wilder, Prairie Wisdom

“Pray, dear madam, another glass; it is Christmas time, it will do you no harm.”

– William Makepeace Thackeray, The Kickleburrys on the Rhine