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
Heap on the wood!
The wind is chill;
But let it whistle as it will,
We'll keep our Christmas merry still.
- Sir Walter Scott
I do come home at Christmas. We all do, or we all should.
We all come home, or ought to come home, for a short holiday -
the longer, the better - from the great boarding school where we are forever working
at our arithmetical slates, to take, and give a rest.
- Charles Dickens
Christmas at Monticello
As it is for many people today, Christmas was for Jefferson a time for family and friends and for celebrations, or in Jefferson's word, "merriment." He described Christmas as "The day of greatest mirth and jollity." Although no documents exist to tell us how, or if, Jefferson decorated his home for the holidays, Jefferson noted the festive scene created by his grandchildren. On Christmas Day 1809, he said of eight-year-old grandson Francis Wayles Eppes (shown at right): "He is at this moment running about with his cousins bawling out 'a merry christmas' 'a christmas gift & c . . . .'"
References indicate that at Monticello, as throughout Virginia, mince pie -- filled with apples, raisins, beef suet, and spices -- was a traditional holiday dinner favorite. Jefferson wrote to Mary Walker Lewis on December 25, 1813: "I will take the liberty of sending for some barrels of apples, and if a basket of them can now be sent by the bearer they will be acceptable as accomodated to the season of mince pies." Music also filled the scene. The Monticello music library included the Christmas favorite "Adeste Fideles."
For Monticello slaves the Christmas holidays signaled a break of several days from their work. During that time, slaves might have visited other plantations or nearby towns, and special rations were distributed. In 1808, then-President Jefferson wrote to his overseer approving a holiday trip to Washington for his slave Davy, whose wife Fanny worked as a cook at the President's House: "I approve of your permitting Davy to come at Christmas." For Jefferson's personal servant, Robert Hemings, Christmas 1794 brought freedom. On Christmas Eve, Hemings became the first of two Monticello slaves freed during Jefferson's lifetime.
--
Mindy Keyes Black, Monticello Department of Development and Public Affairs, November 1996
Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
- Calvin Coolidge
Peace on earth will come to stay, When we live Christmas every day.
- Helen Steiner Rice
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know,
Where the tree tops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.
- Irving Berlin
At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth;
But like of each thing that in season grows.
- William Shakespeare
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 Christmas-time.
- Laura Ingalls Wilder
It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home by Christmas.
- Ronald Reagan
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
And remember, it's His birthday - [pause] - not your's. (Traditional Christmas Eve closer)
- Paul Harvey
In the United States Christmas has become the rape of an idea.
- Richard Bach
My second favorite,
Roses are reddish
Violets are bluish
If it weren't for Christmas
We'd all be Jewish.
- Benny Hill
Christmas at my house is always at least six or seven times more pleasant than anywhere else. We start drinking early. And while everyone else is seeing only one Santa Claus, we'll be seeing six or seven.
- W.C. Fields
The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.
- Johnny Carson
The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. This wasn't for any religious reasons. They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin.
- Jay Leno
A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.
- Garrison Keillor
Christmas is the one time of year when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ.
- Bart Simpson "The Simpsons" 1989
Merry Christmas, Nearly Everybody!
- Ogden Nash
If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts, wouldn't it be a Merry Christmas?
- Don Meredith
And my favorite,
I got up one Christmas morning and we didn't have nothing to eat. We didn't have an apple, we didn't have an orange, we didn't have a cake, we didn't have nothing.
- Muddy Waters
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
Heap on the wood!
The wind is chill;
But let it whistle as it will,
We'll keep our Christmas merry still.
- Sir Walter Scott
I do come home at Christmas. We all do, or we all should.
We all come home, or ought to come home, for a short holiday -
the longer, the better - from the great boarding school where we are forever working
at our arithmetical slates, to take, and give a rest.
- Charles Dickens
Christmas at Monticello
As it is for many people today, Christmas was for Jefferson a time for family and friends and for celebrations, or in Jefferson's word, "merriment." He described Christmas as "The day of greatest mirth and jollity." Although no documents exist to tell us how, or if, Jefferson decorated his home for the holidays, Jefferson noted the festive scene created by his grandchildren. On Christmas Day 1809, he said of eight-year-old grandson Francis Wayles Eppes (shown at right): "He is at this moment running about with his cousins bawling out 'a merry christmas' 'a christmas gift & c . . . .'"
References indicate that at Monticello, as throughout Virginia, mince pie -- filled with apples, raisins, beef suet, and spices -- was a traditional holiday dinner favorite. Jefferson wrote to Mary Walker Lewis on December 25, 1813: "I will take the liberty of sending for some barrels of apples, and if a basket of them can now be sent by the bearer they will be acceptable as accomodated to the season of mince pies." Music also filled the scene. The Monticello music library included the Christmas favorite "Adeste Fideles."
For Monticello slaves the Christmas holidays signaled a break of several days from their work. During that time, slaves might have visited other plantations or nearby towns, and special rations were distributed. In 1808, then-President Jefferson wrote to his overseer approving a holiday trip to Washington for his slave Davy, whose wife Fanny worked as a cook at the President's House: "I approve of your permitting Davy to come at Christmas." For Jefferson's personal servant, Robert Hemings, Christmas 1794 brought freedom. On Christmas Eve, Hemings became the first of two Monticello slaves freed during Jefferson's lifetime.
--Mindy Keyes Black, Monticello Department of Development and Public Affairs, November 1996
Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
- Calvin Coolidge
Peace on earth will come to stay, When we live Christmas every day.
- Helen Steiner Rice
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know,
Where the tree tops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.
- Irving Berlin
At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth;
But like of each thing that in season grows.
- William Shakespeare
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 Christmas-time.
- Laura Ingalls Wilder
It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home by Christmas.
- Ronald Reagan
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
And remember, it's His birthday - [pause] - not your's. (Traditional Christmas Eve closer)
- Paul Harvey
In the United States Christmas has become the rape of an idea.
- Richard Bach
My second favorite,
Roses are reddish
Violets are bluish
If it weren't for Christmas
We'd all be Jewish.
- Benny Hill
Christmas at my house is always at least six or seven times more pleasant than anywhere else. We start drinking early. And while everyone else is seeing only one Santa Claus, we'll be seeing six or seven.
- W.C. Fields
The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.
- Johnny Carson
The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. This wasn't for any religious reasons. They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin.
- Jay Leno
A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.
- Garrison Keillor
Christmas is the one time of year when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ.
- Bart Simpson "The Simpsons" 1989
Merry Christmas, Nearly Everybody!
- Ogden Nash
If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts, wouldn't it be a Merry Christmas?
- Don Meredith
And my favorite,
I got up one Christmas morning and we didn't have nothing to eat. We didn't have an apple, we didn't have an orange, we didn't have a cake, we didn't have nothing.
- Muddy Waters
