Today

‘I know what I really want for Christmas. I want my childhood back. Nobody is going to give me that. I might give at least the memory of it to myself if I try. I know it doesn't make sense, but since when is Christmas about sense, anyway? It is about a child, of long ago and far away, and it is about the child of now. In you and me. Waiting behind the door for something wonderful to happen. A child who is impractical, unrealistic, simpleminded and terribly vulnerable to joy.’

• Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive.”

• Robert Lynd

“Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.”

• G.K. Chesterton, Brave New Family: G.K. Chesterton on Men and Women, Children, Sex, Divorce, Marriage and the Family

“Christmas is a bridge. We need bridges as the river of time flows past. Today's Christmas should mean creating happy hours for tomorrow and reliving those of yesterday.”

• Gladys Bagg Taber

At one time, most of my friends could hear the bell, but as years passed, it fell silent for all of them. Though I've grown old, the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe.

• Chris Van Allsburg, The Polar Express

“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. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

• Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

“He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.”

• Roy L. Smith

“What kind of Christmas present would Jesus ask Santa for?”

• Salman Rushdie, Fury

“A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.”

• Garrison Keillor, Leaving Home

“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