100 Beautiful Christmas Quotes to Share with Loved Ones
Christmas is the holiday I have the most complicated feelings about and also the one I would not trade for anything.
The buildup, the expectations, the gap between what December is supposed to feel like and what it actually feels like in any given year — these are real complications.
And alongside them: the specific warmth of certain evenings, the smells that belong to no other season, the quality of quiet on Christmas morning before anything has been opened or started, the way certain songs land differently in December than they do the rest of the year.
The quotes below are organized by what kind of Christmas feeling they capture.
The inspirational ones for when you need the season to mean something.
The funny ones for when you need it to not take itself so seriously.
The spiritual ones for when you want to go to the center of what it actually is.
The family ones for when you want to hold the people around you a little more tightly.
The romantic ones for when you want to say something to a specific person that the ordinary language of Tuesday does not quite cover.
Find the ones that say what you have been trying to say. Use them accordingly.
1. Inspirational Christmas Quotes
These are the ones that make Christmas feel like it is asking something of you rather than just happening around you.
The Churchill quote at the start is one I come back to every December — the pairing of rejoicing and reflection is the combination I think the season is actually for.
- “Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.”
– Winston Churchill - “Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”
– Norman Vincent Peale - “He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.”
– Roy L. Smith - “The joy of brightening other lives becomes for us the magic of the holidays.”
– W.C. Jones - “At Christmas, all roads lead home.”
– Marjorie Holmes - “Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.”
– Peg Bracken - “Christmas isn’t just a day—it’s a frame of mind.”
– Valentine Davies - “Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day.”
– Helen Steiner Rice - “To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”
– Calvin Coolidge - “The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.”
– Burton Hills - “It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
– Mother Teresa - “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”
– Hamilton Wright Mabie - “Love the giver more than the gift.”
– Brigham Young - “Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind.”
– Calvin Coolidge - “What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future.”
– Agnes M. Pahro - “A good conscience is a continual Christmas.”
– Benjamin Franklin - “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”
– Charles Dickens - “Christmas is the keeping-place for memories of our innocence.”
- “The smells of Christmas are the smells of childhood.”
– Richard Paul Evans - “The joy of giving is the true spirit of Christmas.”
2. Funny Christmas Quotes
December needs these as much as it needs the heartfelt ones.
The Victor Borge quote has been true of every Christmas I have attended, and the one about doing all the work while the fat man in the suit gets the credit is aggressively accurate for anyone who has hosted Christmas dinner.
- “Santa Claus has the right idea—visit people only once a year.”
– Victor Borge - “What I like about Christmas is that you can make people forget the past with the present.”
– Don Marquis - “Let’s be naughty and save Santa the trip.”
– Gary Allan - “There are three stages of man: he believes in Santa Claus; he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus; he is Santa Claus.”
– Bob Phillips - “One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas Day.”
– Andy Rooney - “Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas.”
– Johnny Carson - “My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others.”
– Bob Hope - “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 - “Christmas is a baby shower that went totally overboard.”
– Andy Borowitz - “Even before Christmas has said Hello, it’s saying ‘Buy Buy’.”
– Robert Paul - “Three phrases that sum up Christmas: Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men, and Batteries Not Included.”
- “Why is Christmas just like a day at the office? You do all the work and the fat guy in the suit gets all the credit.”
- “Christmas sweaters are only acceptable as a cry for help.”
– Andy Borowitz - “Christmas is the season when you buy this year’s gifts with next year’s money.”
- “You know you’re getting old when Santa starts looking younger.” – Robert Paul
- “I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note saying, toys not included.”
– Bernard Manning - “The office Christmas party is a great opportunity to catch up with people you haven’t seen for 20 minutes.”
– Julius Sharpe - “Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal!”
– Home Alone 2 - “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas. But if the white runs out, I’ll drink the red.”
- “The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.”
– George Carlin
3. Spiritual & Religious Christmas Quotes
Whether or not Christmas is a religious holiday in your home, these quotes are worth reading because they go to the center of what the season originally was — the story of something arriving in the world that was not there before, and what it meant.
The C.S. Lewis quote, number forty-three, is the one I find most arresting. The Max Lucado ones are quieter but equally true.
- “All the Christmas presents in the world are worth nothing without the presence of Christ.”
— David Jeremiah - “At this Christmas when Christ comes, will He find a warm heart? Mark the season of Advent by loving and serving the others with God’s own love and concern.”
— Mother Teresa - “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.”
— C.S. Lewis - “Christmas is a time to open our hearts to God and His gifts. Just like the rest of the year should be.”
— Author: Pope Francis - “God goes to those who have time to hear Him — and so on this cloudless night, He went to simple shepherds.”
— Max Lucado - “The story of Christmas is the story of God’s relentless love for us. He didn’t send a note or an angel. He sent Himself.”
— Max Lucado - “The hinge of history is on the door of a Bethlehem stable.”
— Ralph W. Sockman - “Let the just rejoice, for their Justifier is born.
Let the sick and infirm rejoice, for their Savior is born.
Let the captives rejoice, for their Redeemer is born.”
— St. Augustine - “The birth of Jesus is the sunrise of the Bible. It brought joy to the shepherds, guidance to the wise men, and peace to the world.”
— Henry van Dyke - “Christ was born in the first century, but He belongs to all centuries.
He was born a Jew, but He belongs to all races.
He was born in Bethlehem, but He belongs to all countries.”
— George W. Truett - “Christmas is not a myth, not a tradition, not a dream.
It is a glorious reality.
It is the coming of the Savior — a moment that split time in two.”
— Billy Graham - “You can never truly enjoy Christmas until you can look up into the Father’s face and tell Him you have received His Christmas gift — Jesus Christ.”
— John R. Rice - “Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day — with love, kindness, and faith in our hearts.”
— Helen Steiner Rice - “Christmas means that God is with us — not only in celebration, but in suffering, in struggle, and in silence. Emmanuel is for all seasons.”
— Tim Keller - “Good news from heaven the angels bring, Glad tidings to the earth they sing: To us this day a child is given, To crown us with the joy of heaven.”
— Martin Luther - “Jesus was God and man in one person, that God and man might be happy together again.”
— George Whitefield - “The birth of Christ is the central event in the history of the Earth. The very thing the whole story has been about.”
— C.S. Lewis - “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”
— Hamilton Wright Mabie - “Let us keep Christmas beautiful without a thought of greed, that it may live forevermore to fill our every need.”
— Ann Garnett Schultz - “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?”
— G.K. Chesterton
4. Heartwarming Family & Love Christmas Quotes
These are the ones I read when I want to hold the people I love more gently.
The Bobby Fischer quote (number seventy) has stayed with me for years — the idea that love is what is in the room with you at Christmas when you stop opening presents and just listen. That listening is the whole thing.
- “The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.”
— Burton Hills - “When we remember a special Christmas, it is not the presents that made it special, but the laughter, the feeling of love, and being surrounded by those who matter most.”
— Richard Paul Evans - “Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day.”
— Helen Steiner Rice - “Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts.”
— Janice Maeditere - “Christmas means fellowship, feasting, giving and receiving, a time of good cheer, home.”
— W. J. Tucker - “The smells of Christmas are the smells of childhood.”
— Richard Paul Evans - “Christmas gives us the opportunity to pause and reflect on the important things around us—family, friends, and faith.”
— David Cameron - “Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can’t see.”
— Chris Van Allsburg, The Polar Express - “Christmas is the keeping-place for memories of our innocence.”
— Joan Mills - “Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas when you stop opening presents and just listen.”
— Bobby Fischer - “At Christmas, all roads lead home.”
— Marjorie Holmes - “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”
— Hamilton Wright Mabie - “Christmas isn’t just a season. It’s a feeling of belonging, of being home.”
— Edna Ferber - “There’s nothing cozier than Christmas at home with the people you love.”
— Toni Sorenson - “The heart of Christmas is not in the decorations or gifts, but in the love we share with those who mean the most.”
— Thomas S. Monson - “The joy of brightening other lives becomes for us the magic of the holidays.”
— W.C. Jones - “He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.”
— Roy L. Smith - “To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”
— Calvin Coolidge - “Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends.”
— Margaret Thatcher - “Home is where we belong, especially at Christmas.”
— Charles Dickens
5. Romantic Christmas Quotes
These are for the person you want to say something to that ordinary conversation does not quite reach.
December has a specific quality that makes it easier to say the things that go unsaid the rest of the year. These quotes are the ones that help.
- “It’s not what’s under the Christmas tree that matters. It’s who’s around it. And I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but by your side”
— Charlie Brown - “Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas, if you stop opening presents and listen.”
— Bobby Fischer - “You are the star on top of my Christmas tree.”
- “To the world, you may be one person, but to one person, you may be the world. At Christmas, you are both my gift and my world.”
— Dr. Seuss - “You are the poem I never knew how to write, and this Christmas, I want to read you over and over again.”
— Adapted from Dean Jackson - “I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar every month. But with you, love feels like Christmas all year.”
— Harlan Miller - “The best gift around the tree is the presence of a happy heart — and nothing makes mine happier than you.”
— Inspired by Burton Hills - “My heart is perfect because you are inside. And during Christmas, I feel you even more deeply in it.”
- “Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy — that is the real spirit of Christmas.”
— Calvin Coolidge - “Every time I see the Christmas lights, I see your eyes. They shine brighter than all the stars in the sky.”
— Adapted from Nicholas Sparks style - “A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory — like a thunderstorm. And I’d choose to weather every storm with you.”
— Inspired by Garrison Keillor - “Christmas is the keeping-place for memories of our innocence and joy — and I want to spend all my future memories with you.”
— Adapted from Joan Mills - “You are my today and all of my tomorrows. But on Christmas, I fall for you all over again.”
— Leo Christopher - “Meeting you was like hearing my favorite Christmas song for the first time — I didn’t know the words, but it felt like home.”
— Inspired by Atticus Poetry style - “Being in your arms on a cold Christmas night feels like the definition of peace on Earth.”
— Inspired by Henry Wadsworth - “Christmas works like glue — it keeps us all sticking together. And you, my love, are my forever glue”
— Rosie Thomas - “You are the twinkle in my eye, the sparkle on my tree, the jingle in my bell, the candy in my cane. You’re every Christmas feeling rolled into one.”
- “Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness.”
— Oliver Wendell Holmes - “Whatever is beautiful.
Whatever is meaningful.
Whatever brings you happiness.
May it be yours this holiday season — and always with me.”
— Adapted from traditional blessing - “All I want for Christmas is your heart wrapped in mine, forever.”
— Inspired by Mariah Carey
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