The Christmas Tree, an article that explains its legend, origin and tradition, with some enlightening merry quotes to enrich the great value of the Christmas period.

Snowflakes felt so awesome in winter season. There is a main figure in Christmas known as Santa Claus. And the main theme of Christmas is jingle bell, a very famous tune known all other the world. People use this tune a lot all over the Christmas event, and it feels so good like something very positive that will bring peace and happiness in our lives.

Moving between the legs of tables and of chairs, rising or falling, grasping at kisses and toys, advancing boldly, sudden to take alarm, retreating to the corner of arm and knee, eager to be reassured, taking pleasure in the fragrant brilliance of the Christmas tree.
T. S. Eliot

It is curious to what a degree one may become attached to a fine tree, especially when it is placed where trees are rare.
Christian Nestell Bovee

The Christmas tree is the dot on the i.
Frank Taylor

The trees that bud and blossom forth, Throughout the world from south to north, Are tokens that a life will bloom When manhood’s passed beyond the tomb.
T. Augustus Forbes Leith

Three things are needed to make a Christmas tree: ornaments, the tree and faith in the future.
Armenian proverb

I stone got crazy when I saw somebody run down them strings with a bottleneck. My eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and I said that I had to learn.
Muddy Waters

My beer-drenched soul is sadder than all the dead Christmas trees in the world.
Charles Bukowski

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.
Roy L. Smith

It’s not what’s under the Christmas tree that matters, it’s who’s around it.
Charlie Brown

A Christian should resemble a fruit tree with real fruit, not a Christmas tree with decorations tied on.
John Stott

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.
Burton Hillis

I grew up with a Christmas tree, I’m going to stay with a Christmas tree.
Thomas Menino

The perfect Christmas tree, all Christmas trees are perfect.
Charles N. Barnard

Some Christmas tree ornaments do more than glitter and glow, they represent a gift of love given a long time ago.
Tom Baker

The Christmas tree is beautiful only when it is finished and when the lights can be turned on, the crib is not, the crib is beautiful when you do it or even when you think about it.
Luciano De Crescenzo

Taking down the Christmas tree makes it feel official: time to get back to joyless and cynical.
Greg Fitzsimmons

I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It’s not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love.
Linus Van Pelt

What will we find under the Christmas tree this year? Oh my God, I think the roots!
Carl William Brown

Glittering tinsel, lights, glass balls, and candy canes dangle from pine trees.
Richelle E. Goodrich

The best Christmas trees come very close to exceeding nature.
Andy Rooney

There is new life in the soil for every man. There is healing in the trees for tired minds and for our overburdened spirits, there is strength in the hills, if only we will lift up our eyes. Remember that nature is your great restorer.
Calvin Coolidge

The earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine.
James Irwin

Christmas tree stands are the work of the devil and they want you dead.
Bill Bryson

Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.
Eckhart Tolle

He that planteth a tree is the servant of God, He provideth a kindness for many generations, And faces that he hath not seen shall bless him.
Henry Van Dyke

Now I’m an old Christmas tree, the roots of which have died. They just come along and while the little needles fall off me replace them with medallions.
Orson Welles

Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 25 feet tall.
Larry Wilde

They’ve got plastic Christmas trees now. They’re hard to tell from the real aluminum ones.
Milton Berle

I was only kicking down the Christmas tree to get the star on top.
Ray Bradbury

I don’t know what I believe. I guess that makes me a christmas tree agnostic.
Stephanie Perkins

Only look what is still on the ugly old Christmas tree!” said he, trampling on the branches, so that they all cracked beneath his feet. And the Tree beheld all the beauty of the flowers, and the freshness in the garden; he beheld himself, and wished he had remained in his dark corner in the loft; he thought of his first youth in the woods, of the merry Christmas Eve, and of the little Mice who had listened with so much pleasure to the story of Klumpy-Dumpy.
Hans Christian Andersen

A Christmas tree, the perfect gift for a guy. The plant is already dead.
Jay Leno

The Christmas tree, twinkling with lights, had a mountain of gifts piled up beneath it, like offerings to the great god of excess.
Tess Gerritsen

A dog looking at a lit Christmas tree thinks: they finally put the light in the toilet.
Romano Bertola

Christmas trees don’t grow on trees; they need rainbows, lumberjacks, and Leprechauns on unicorns playing jock jams on glockenspiels.
Ryan Ross

Make your plate look like a Christmas tree, I tell people, mostly green with splashes of other bright colors.
Victoria Moran

There’s no experience quite like cutting your own live Christmas tree out of your neighbor’s yard.
Dan Florence

The smell of pine needles, spruce and the smell of a Christmas tree, those to me, are the scents of the holidays.
Blake Lively

Christmas is a very enjoyable event ever. It is a great feast for everyone. Kids, adults and grandparents. Everyone enjoy this occasion very much. Parents give presents to their children and this brings happiness in their hearts. An enormous amount of joy comes through this period which is a real gem for us. Therefore how could we avoid talking of one of the main symbol of this religious celebration, which is certainly the Christmas Tree, so let’s read about its fascinating history.

The Christmas tree today is a common custom to most of us. There are many interesting connections to ancient traditions such as Egyptian and Roman customs, early Christian practices, and Victorian nostalgia. However, most scholars point to Germany as being the origin of the Christmas tree.

Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.

In the Northern hemisphere, the shortest day and longest night of the year falls on December 21 or December 22 and is called the winter solstice. Many ancient people believed that the sun was a god and that winter came every year because the sun god had become sick and weak. They celebrated the solstice because it meant that at last the sun god would begin to get well. Evergreen boughs reminded them of all the green plants that would grow again when the sun god was strong and summer would return.

The ancient Egyptians worshipped a god called Ra, who had the head of a hawk and wore the sun as a blazing disk in his crown. At the solstice, when Ra began to recover from his illness, the Egyptians filled their homes with green palm rushes, which symbolized for them the triumph of life over death.

Early Romans marked the solstice with a feast called Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. The Romans knew that the solstice meant that soon, farms and orchards would be green and fruitful. To mark the occasion, they decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs.

In Northern Europe the mysterious Druids, the priests of the ancient Celts, also decorated their temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life. The fierce Vikings in Scandinavia thought that evergreens were the special plant of the sun god, Balder.

One of the earliest stories relating back to Germany is about Saint Boniface. In 722, he encountered some pagans who were about to sacrifice a child at the base of a huge oak tree. He cut down the tree to prevent the sacrifice and a Fir tree grew up at the base of the oak. He then told everyone that this lovely evergreen, with its branches pointing to heaven, was a holy tree – the tree of the Christ child, and a symbol of His promise of eternal life.

Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce. Another story tells that perhaps it was Martin Luther responsible for the origin of the Christmas tree.

This story says that one Christmas Eve, about the year 1500, he was walking through the snow-covered woods and was struck by the beauty of the snow glistened trees. Their branches, dusted with snow, shimmered in the moon light. When he got home, he set up a small fir tree and shared the story with his children. He decorated the Christmas tree with small candles, which he lighted in honor of Christ’s birth.

Another legend says that in the early 16th century, people in Germany combined two customs that had been practiced in different countries around the globe. The Paradise tree (a fir tree decorated with apples) represented the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.

The Christmas Light, a small, pyramid-like frame, usually decorated with glass balls, tinsel and a candle on top, was a symbol of the birth of Christ as the Light of the World. Changing the tree’s apples to tinsel balls and cookies and combining this new tree with the light placed on top, the Germans created the tree that many of us know today.

In the 1840s and 50s, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert popularized the Christmas tree in England. Prince Albert decorated a tree and ever since that time, the English, because of their love for their Queen, copied her Christmas customs including the Christmas tree and ornaments. An engraving of the Royal Family celebrating Christmas at Windsor was published in 1848 and their German traditions were copied and adapted.

Another story about the origin of the Christmas tree says that late in the Middle Ages, Germans and Scandinavians placed evergreen trees inside their homes or just outside their doors to show their hope that spring would soon come.

Most 19th-century Americans found Christmas trees an oddity. The first record of one being on display was in the 1830s by the German settlers of Pennsylvania, although trees had been a tradition in many German homes much earlier. The Pennsylvania German settlements had community trees as early as 1747. But, as late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.

It is not surprising that, like many other festive Christmas customs, the tree was adopted so late in America. To the New England Puritans, Christmas was sacred. The pilgrims’s second governor, William Bradford, wrote that he tried hard to stamp out “pagan mockery” of the observance, penalizing any frivolity. The influential Oliver Cromwell preached against “the heathen traditions” of Christmas carols, decorated trees, and any joyful expression that desecrated “that sacred event.” In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making any observance of December 25 (other than a church service) a penal offense; people were fined for hanging decorations. That stern solemnity continued until the 19th century, when the influx of German and Irish immigrants undermined the Puritan legacy.

The early 20th century saw Americans decorating their trees mainly with homemade ornaments, while the German-American sect continued to use apples, nuts, and marzipan cookies. Popcorn joined in after being dyed bright colors and interlaced with berries and nuts. Electricity brought about Christmas lights, making it possible for Christmas trees to glow for days on end. With this, Christmas trees began to appear in town squares across the country and having a Christmas tree in the home became an American tradition.

Research into customs of various cultures shows that greenery was often brought into homes at the time of the winter solstice. It symbolized life in the midst of death in many cultures. The Romans were known to deck their homes with evergreens during of Kalends of January 15. Living trees were also brought into homes during the old Germany feast of Yule, which originally was a two month feast beginning in November. The Yule tree was planted in a tub and brought into the home. But there is no evidence that the Christmas tree is a direct descendent of the Yule tree.

Evidence does point to the Paradise tree however. This story goes back to the 11th century religious plays. One of the most popular was the Paradise Play. The play depicted the story of the creation of Adam and Eve, their sin, and their banishment from Paradise. The only prop on the stage was the Paradise tree, a fir tree adorned with apples. The play would end with the promise of the coming Savior and His Incarnation. The people had grown so accustomed to the Paradise tree, that they began putting their own Paradise tree up in their homes on December 24.

Christmas trees have been sold commercially in the United States since about 1850. In 1979, the National Christmas Tree was not lighted except for the top ornament. This was done in honor of the American hostages in Iran. The tallest living Christmas tree is believed to be the 122-foot, 91-year-old Douglas fir in the town of Woodinville, Washington. The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree tradition began in 1933. Franklin Pierce, the 14th president, brought the Christmas tree tradition to the White House. In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge started the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony now held every year on the White House lawn.

Since 1966, the National Christmas Tree Association has given a Christmas tree to the President and first family. Most Christmas trees are cut weeks before they get to a retail outlet. In 1912, the first community Christmas tree in the United States was erected in New York City. Christmas trees generally take six to eight years to mature. Christmas trees are grown in all 50 states including Hawaii and Alaska. 90 percent of all Christmas trees are grown on farms. More than 1,000,000 acres of land have been planted with Christmas trees. On average, over 2,000 Christmas trees are planted per acre.

You should never burn your Christmas tree in the fireplace. It can contribute to creosote buildup. Other types of trees such as cherry and hawthorns were used as Christmas trees in the past. Thomas Edison’s assistants came up with the idea of electric lights for Christmas trees. In 1963, the National Christmas Tree was not lit until December 22nd because of a national 30-day period of mourning following the assassination of President Kennedy. Teddy Roosevelt banned the Christmas tree from the White House for environmental reasons. On the contrary the 2020 Christmas Tree is an 18 ½ foot Fraser Fir from West Virginia. It will serve as a centerpiece for Christmas decorations in the Blue Room of the White House. The White House Christmas Tree must stand 18-19 feet tall and reach the ceiling of the Blue Room, where the chandelier is removed each holiday season to accommodate the tree.

And last but not least, if you want to choose the perfect Christmas tree visit the website of The American Christmas Tree Association (ACTA) which is a non-profit organization established to help families create holiday memories and build traditions by choosing the perfect Christmas tree. www.christmastreeassociation.org/

Instead if you need a good short story for your children about Christmas or the Christmas tree, you can find many of them at this link:
https://americanliterature.com/author/hans-christian-andersen/short-story/the-fir-tree

Top 10 Tallest Christmas Trees in The World

Read also our other posts on Christmas  ;

Christmas quotes ;

60 great Christmas quotes ;

Christmas tree origin and quotes ; 

Traditional Christmas Carols ;

Christmas jokes ;

Christmas markets in England ;

Christmas cracker jokes ;

Christmas food ;

Christmas thoughts ;

Christmas story ;

Christmas in Italy ;

Christmas holidays ;

Christmas songs ;

Christmas poems ;

An Essay on Christmas by Chesterton ;

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Quotes by arguments

Thoughts and reflections

Essays with quotes

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Short news about Italy, with an explanatory video on all 20 Italian Regions Stereotypes, from the book Italy in brief by Carl William Brown, a collection of quotes, news and thoughts about Italy 

The name Italy comes from the word Italia, meaning “calf land,” perhaps because the bull was a symbol of the Southern Italian tribes.
Historical News

The capital of Italy is Rome (also known as the Eternal City) and is almost 3,000 years old. It has been the capital since 1871 and is home to the Dome of St. Peter’s, the Sistine Chapel, the Coliseum, and the famous Trevi Fountain.
Historical News

By the year 2000 B.C., Italic tribes (Oscans, Umbrians, Latins) had established themselves in Italy. They were followed by the Etruscans in 800 B.C. and the Greeks, who established colonies known as Magna Graeca in southern Italy (present-day Apulia). Rome was founded in 753 B.C., and soon thereafter the Romans began conquering the peninsula.
Historical News

At its height in A.D. 117, the Roman Empire stretched from Portugal in the West to Syria in the east, and from Britain in the North to the North African deserts across the Mediterranean. It covered 2.3 million miles (two-thirds the size of the U.S.) and had a population of 120 million people. During the Middle Ages, Rome had perhaps no more than 13,000 residents.
Historical News

When McDonald’s opened in 1986 in Rome, food purists outside the restaurant gave away free spaghetti to remind people of their culinary heritage.
Italians created parmesan, provolone, mozzarella, and many other cheeses. Parmesan cheese originated in the area around
Historical News

Vatican City is the only nation in the world that can lock its own gates at night. It has its own phone company, radio, T.V. stations, money, and stamps. It even has its own army, the historic Swiss Guard.
Historical News

Parma, Italy. Italians also created many other cheeses, including gorgonzola, mozzarella, provolone, and ricotta. No one knows when the pizza was invented, but the people of Naples made it popular.
Historical News

The European Union law states that we have the free movement of companies, they have freedom of establishment. This is in fact the entire point of the whole Single Market program. One company, based anywhere inside the EU, can then sell to all 27 other countries in the EU without needing to have a permanent establishment in each of those 27. And believe me the EU isn’t going to allow someone to over turn that very basic foundation of the entire project. It’s just not going to happen. So I am perfectly free to buy any goods that are legally sold throughout Europe, provided that they can be delivered, even though they are not legal in Italy, even because in Italy only stupidity is legal.
Carl William Brown

Italian is a Romance language descended from Vulgar Latin, just like Spanish, French, Portuguese and Romanian, the dialect spoken by the people living during the last years of the Roman Empire. Before the Romans came, people spoke their own languages, and the mixture of these original tongues with Latin produced many of the languages and dialects that are still in use today. Italian has more Latin words than any other Romance languages, and its grammatical system remains similar to Latin. Latin is still the official language of the Vatican City in Rome. In the 1930s and 40s, Italian fascist Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) tried to eliminate foreign words from Italian. In soccer, “goal” became “meta” and Donald Duck became “Paperino.” Mickey Mouse became “Topolino” and Goofy became “Pippo.” While the ban was not permanent, the Italian names remain common.
Historical News

The world’s first operas were composed in Italy at the end of the sixteenth century. Opera reached the height of popularity in the nineteenth century, when the works of Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868), Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), and Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) became hugely popular. The late
tenor Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007) is a national celebrity, and

Claudio Monteverdi (c. 1567-1643) is regarded as the father of the modern opera.
Historical News

Venice, Italy, is one of the world’s most beautiful and unusual cities. It was founded over 1,400 years ago on a collection of muddy islands in a wide and shallow lagoon. It has been sinking into the mud for centuries and is plagued by floods.
Italy was one of the founders of the EU and is a member of the Group of Eight (G8), a forum for eight of the world’s most powerful nations.
Historical News

In Italy there are about 60 million people and we know how high is the percentage of morons on national soil. However, in China there are about 1.4 billion people and in India almost 1.3 billion. Therefore I wonder then, if more or less all the world is a small village, with how many morons should we have to come to terms on the territory of this stupid planet. It’s the same the world over, or the world is the same wherever you go!
Carl William Brown

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian-born scientist. When he argued that the Earth revolved around the Sun, the Catholic Church imprisoned Galileo in his own house. The Church issued a formal apology in 1992.
Historical News

A part of northern Italy called Val Camonica contains about 350,000 petroglyphs that were created nearly 10,000 years ago. Brescia is a famous town at 75 km from there, it is very popular for Beretta arms industry, the oldest in the world, the Garda Lake and also because Carl William Brown was born there.
Historical News

Before the Romans came, people spoke their own languages, and the mixture of these original tongues with Latin produced many of the languages and dialects that are still in use today. If you know one of the Romance languages, you can often understand bits of another. Just as members of the same family can look similar but have totally different characters. You find the same contradictions in the dialects (regional or local language differences) in Italy and in other countries. If you visit Italy, you’ll hear various accents and dialects as you travel the country. Despite the number of dialects, you may be surprised to discover that everybody understands your Italian and you understand theirs. (Italians don’t normally speak in their dialect with foreigners.)
Linguistic News

About 70% of our English words come from Latin. This alone make Latin the most important language to influence English. For example, the word, promise, comes from “pro-mitto,” meaning to send before. Here are some more examples: word = verbum; canine = canis; college =collegium. I think you get the picture. Also Latin has influenced our grammar. For example, the distinction between “I” and “me” is based on cases. I equals nominative case in Latin and me equals dative, ablative and accusative cases. Even little things like the improper use of split infinitives come from Latin, since in Latin infinitives cannot be split. For example, to love is amare (one word) in Latin. So, in short, Latin continues to play a huge role.
Linguistic News

Italian is the official language of Italy and it is spoken by about 70 million people, primarily in this country. It’s the official language of San Marino as well, and one of the official languages of Switzerland, spoken mainly in Ticino and Grigioni cantons.
Linguistic News

The Italian Flag or il Tricolore is a green, white and red tricolor flag with equal panels representing the territories of the Republic of Italy. Adopted as the national flag on 1 January 1948, official colour designation under the Pantone Textile policy was established in 2003, then ratified into law in 2006.
Historical News

When I was growing up, my parents told me, “Finish your dinner. People in China and India are starving.” I tell my daughters, “Finish your homework. People in India and China are starving for your job.”
Thomas Friedman

Who goes to Rome a beast returns a beast.
Italian Proverb

Italy hasn’t had a government since Mussolini.
Richard Nixon

How did Italy manage to end up with no Caribbean islands at all? Christopher Columbus took the trouble to discover the

Caribbean personally before the end of the fifteenth century. Try to get a decent plate of spaghetti there now.
Calvin Trillin

Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.
Bertrand Russell

In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
Orson Welles

If Spain goes under, Italy will come under even more scrutiny.
Mario Monti

In the Church of San Giovanni (One of the finest Renaissance churches in Italy) you can see Tintoretto’s masterpiece, “Madonna with Four Saints”. In the Church of San Giacomo you can see Botticelli’s masterpiece, “Two Saints with the Madonna”. In the Church of San Bartolomeo do not miss Tiepolo’s huge canvas, “Madonna with Twenty Three Saints”. In the chapel of San Marco, the focus of attention is Perugino’s small painting, “Madonna with just One Saint”.
George Mikes

Italy is a geographical expression.
Prince Metternich

Certainly, in Italy, nobody takes light for granted.
Barbara Steele

A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.
Samuel Johnson

Every country gets the circus it deserves. Spain gets bullfights. Italy the Church. America Hollywood.
Erica Jong

Internet penetration in Italy is quite low and the Berlusconi media machine controls most of what people see.
Joichi Ito

I would like to thank my parents in Vergaio, a little village in Italy. They gave me the biggest gift: poverty.
Roberto Benigni

Gli italiani sono irrimediabilmente fatti per la dittatura.
Ennio Flaiano

The ideological mix-up is a natural, exasperating and, at the same time, endearing feature in this country of fierce individualists. There are seventy-five political parties in Italy – although not all are represented in parliament. Most of these parties are very small but even the smallest can boast of a sharp and unbridgeable ideological split. There is a party which has only one single member. He is schizophrenic.
George Mikes

In Italy there are about 60 million people and we know how high is the percentage of morons on national soil. However, in China there are about 1.4 billion people and in India almost 1.3 billion. Therefore I wonder then, if more or less all the world is a small village, with how many morons should we have to come to terms on the territory of this stupid planet.
Carl William Brown

You have to remember that Italy is second to none, in fact, if Germany has more than 3,500 brothels, Italy has the Vatican!
Carl William Brown

Appeal to all scholars of stupidity in the world. Come to Italy, this country has the highest rate of morons of the universe, especially among political, bureaucratic, judicial, religious, intellectual, artistic, and mass media members, so it is the best place to develop your own field research.
Carl William Brown

To be a true philosopher you must study stupidity a lot, that’s why, as Doctor Samuel Johnson used to say, a man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.
Carl William Brown

Italy is one of the world leading country of bureaucracy and stupidity.
Carl William Brown

The ideological mix-up is a natural, exasperating and, at the same time, endearing feature in this country of fierce individualists. There are seventy-five political parties in Italy – although not all are represented in parliament. Most of these parties are very small but even the smallest can boast of a sharp and unbridgeable ideological split. There is a party which has only one single member. He is schizophrenic.
George Mikes

Since Italy is the land of bureaucratic and political nonsense, it tries to make up for the lost chances through a complex system of confused laws and logical stupidity.
Carl William Brown

The increased presence of Muslims in Italy and in Europe is directly proportional to our loss of freedom.
Oriana Fallaci

Italy is doomed to disappear, it is too stupid to survive!
Carl William Brown

The most hypocritical, bootlicking, obsequious, slavelike, submissive, unfree journalists in Europe, this is Italy.
Carl William Brown

The Italians may be clever and quick-witted but they are not intellectuals. They lack wanderlust, indeed, most of them lack intellectual curiosity in every shape and form.
George Mikes

In Italy there are a lot of illegal things, since the law is illegal too.
Carl William Brown

Prices in Italy are only slightly lower than in France, which means that Italy is a very expensive country for everyone, natives, visitors and tourists.
George Mikes

Repetita iuvant. Italy, a land of great saints, poets, sailors, artists, statesmen, businessmen, lawyers, intellectuals, professors, journalists, whores, gangsters, religious parasites and dickheads.
Carl William Brown

The main characteristic of English conversation is that no one ever speaks; of Italian that everyone speaks at the same time. One iron law reigns supreme in Italian conversation: the survival of the loudest.
George Mikes

In Italy we have not a Common law legal system, we have a stupid one instead!
Carl William Brown

Hotel bills are scrupulously honest all over Italy… The only case which puzzled me occured in Naples. I wondered whether they were justified in adding 230 lire for heating to my bill in early June.
George Mikes

The Cathedral of this ancient and beautiful city of ……….* is of particular interest. It is the third largest Cathedral in Italy. It is a magnificent Gothic building (not pure Gothic but pure enough for the vast majority of tourists). The Italians, in their outlandish way, like to refer to the Cathedral as Il Duomo. * Fill in the name of the city with pencil. Rub it afterwards.
George Mikes

In Italy there are many illegal things, but stupidity is the most legal of all.
Carl William Brown

Italians intellectuals are few and far between. This is not a derogatory statement; nor is it a praise… Italy can boast of a number of intellectuals – brilliant and witty. But their number is small – much smaller than in France, England or Germany. The Italians, as a nation, do not read much. Observe a rush hour crowd in London or New York on the one hand and in Rome on the other. In London and New York one person in ten will be without a paper; in Rome one in ten will have a paper. The Italians will watch the women in the bus or tram, the crowd in the street or the passing shop-windows but they do not read.
George Mikes

The stupidest and most corrupted, dangerous, useless, incompetent, unfit and inefficient politicians in Europe: this is Italy.
Carl William Brown

On Amazon with Kindle Unlimited you can read the new edition of this book, that is Aphorismi et sententiae de italia et italis: Aforismi, citazioni, battute, invettive e riflessioni sull’Italia e gli Italiani (with English Quotes) by Carl William Brown

You can also download the first edition of the book with a lot of quotes about Italy by various authors from this link. Enjoy our beautiful country! 

All 20 Italian Regions Stereotypes Explained

Read also:

https://www.english-culture.com/christmas-in-italy/

https://www.english-culture.com/aphorisms-on-italy/

https://www.english-culture.com/quotations-on-italy/

Quotes by authors

Quotes by arguments

Thoughts and reflections

Essays with quotes

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News and events

Christmas best humorous quotes, a collection of famous amusing aphorisms and funny quotes about Christmas for your holy laughter to spend a wonderful Christmas.

As our dear old friend Mark Twain used to say, mankind has only one truly effective weapon: laughter. So, in this Christmas season, when age is advancing, money is scarce, and the death toll continues to rise, I’ve decided to publish a new selection of humorous aphorisms and funny jokes about Christmas. While I’m fully aware that laughing during this time can be a challenging thing, I still want to have faith and be optimistic. After all, the three things that help us endure adversity, as old Kant reminds us, are precisely: hope, sleep, and laughter. And that’s precisely why I want to bring a breath of joy and lightheartedness to all who will read these funny Christmas quotes that are surely going to bring good tidings to you and your kin and help you get into the holiday spirit.
Carl William Brown

At Christmas, we must all be kinder, not more stupid!
Carl William Brown

Everyone’s nicer at Christmas. It’s the before and after that worries me.
Lucy van Pelt

After the Christmas holidays, my wife always puts me on a diet, but this year I don’t feel like it, and in protest, I’ve started a hunger strike!
Bilbo Baggins

It’s Christmas. I’m torn between feeling a great sense of brotherhood and going skiing in Cortina.
Altan

No one respects me. For Christmas, I gave my son a BB gun. And he gave me a T-shirt with a target on the back.
Rodney Dangerfield

You did it for me! So thank you. That means I’ll put your lover on my Christmas list, but only if I can find a letter bomb.
Woody Allen

During the Christmas holidays my parents always took me to my grandparents, but I didn’t enjoy the cemetery at all.
Carl William Brown

Okay, Christmas is an intimate holiday… but stop giving me underwear!
Boris Dress

According to a recent statistic, the most read phrase during the Christmas holidays is: “Batteries not included.”
Mauroemme

The last time I felt the Christmas spirit, the Ghostbusters were taking care of it.
Waxen

Mom, mom, why are we putting up a Christmas tree in October? How can I tell you you have cancer!
Anonymous

My father was a real bastard. At Christmas, he’d take us into the woods and say, ‘Children, the presents are under the tree. Guess which one?’
Mario Zucca

From a commercial standpoint, if Christmas didn’t exist, it would have to be invented.
Katherine Whitehorn

Christmas: A special day dedicated to the exchange of gifts, gluttony, drunkenness, the most sentimentality, general boredom, and domestic virtues.
Ambrose Bierce

Dear Baby Jesus, in this pandemic year of 2020, you took away my favorite singer: Juliette Gréco; my favorite actor: Sean Connery; my favorite soccer player: Diego Maradona; my favorite theatrical actor, Gigi Proietti; my favorite philosopher, Giulio Giorello (so to speak, of course). Listen to me now, I wanted to tell you that my favorite politician is … (insert the politician you think deserves to leave us as soon as possible) and that the year isn’t over yet! Best wishes again, and try your best.
Carl William Brown

As a child, it was tough. For Christmas, I was given batteries, with the words “Toy not included” written on them.
Rodney Dangerfield

There’s nothing sadder than waking up on Christmas morning and discovering you’re not a child.
Erma Bombeck

There’s so much crisis during this Christmas pandemic that the markets will surely open with a sharp decline.
Carl William Brown

Have you ever noticed that life seems to follow patterns? For example, I’ve noticed that every year around this time of year I hear Christmas music.
Tom Sims

We’re having a baby soon. Are you kidding? No, I’m actually having a baby: the doctor told me… it’ll be my Christmas present! But a tie was enough for me!
Woody Allen

Some enterprising youth should go from door to door on Christmas morning peddling batteries.
Jean Kerr

The ultimate in longevity is the Christmas fruitcake. It is a cake made during the holidays with fruits that make it heavier than the stove it is cooked in.
Erma Bombeck

What I don’t like about Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day.
Phyllis Diller

The tradition of Festivus begins with the Airing of Grievances. I’ve got a lot of problems with you people! And now, you’re going to hear about it!
Frank Costanza

Rich, peaceful nations sell weapons to poor, war-torn nations; then at Christmas they collect toys to send to the children of families devastated by the planet’s various conflicts.
Carl William Brown

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was 6. Mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph.
Shirley Temple

Turkey is good for Christmas, but Christmas is not good for turkey.
Achille Campanile

Nobody’s walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas.
Clark Griswold

Ugster vinyl pumps, Partridge Family records, plastic daisy jewelry, old postcards … It’s a magpie Christmas market.
Francesca Lia Block

It’s Christmas Eve. This morning in the shop, a woman asked me what time Midnight Mass is…
Sarotta

I would like a nice slice of Christmas Pam. Side of candy Pams. And perhaps some Pam chops with mint.
Michael Scott

Some people are born for Halloween, and some are just counting the days until Christmas.
Stephen Jones

You say you hate Washington’s birthday or Thanksgiving, and nobody cares, but you say you hate Christmas, and people treat you like you’re a leper.
Kate Beringer

My mother-in-law has come round to our house at Christmas seven years running. This year we’re having a change. We’re going to let her in.
Les Dawson

Our children await Christmas presents like politicians getting in election returns: There’s the Uncle Fred precinct and the Aunt Ruth district still to come in.
Marcelene Cox

Christmas, that annual celebration of parental guilt and juvenile greed.
P.D. James

At Christmas, one in three Italians will go into debt for Christmas Eve dinner. The other two will go into debt for dinner.
Don Eugenio Iodice

I got myself for Secret Santa. I was supposed to tell somebody, but I didn’t.
Kevin Malone

Christmas is the season when people run out of money before they run out of friends.
Larry Wilde

I grew up on a Christmas Tree Farm, so this is a good season for me. I was too young to help with the hauling of the trees up the hills and putting them onto cars. So, it was my job to pull the praying mantis pods off of the Christmas trees. The problem with that is if you leave them on there, people bring them into their house. I forgot to check one time, and they hatched all over these people’s house – and there were hundreds of thousands of them!
Taylor Swift

The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.
George Carlin

I was Christmas shopping and ran into a guy on the street. I noticed his watch and said that it runs slow. He said, ‘So does the guy I stole it from.’
David Letterman

I got myself for Secret Santa. I was supposed to tell somebody, but I didn’t.
Kevin Malone

Don’t send funny greeting cards on birthdays or at Christmas. Save them for funerals when their cheery effect is needed.
P.J. O’Rourke

Christmas is a time when you get homesick, even if you’re home.
Carol Nelson

At the Festivus dinner, you gather your family around and tell them all the ways they have disappointed you over the past year.
Frank Costanza

Wife and husband at the table: “Of course, of course, dear, I like Christmas leftovers… but not in April!”
Anonymous

You have such a pretty face. You should be on a Christmas card.
Buddy, Elf

What are you doing for Christmas?” “I’m getting fat.”
Daniele Villa

Aren’t we forgetting the true meaning of Christmas? You know, the birth of Santa.
Bart Simpson

Last Christmas, I was so broke that, to avoid disappointing my son, I had to tell him I’d bought him the Invisible Man doll.
Paolo Burini

No matter how many Christmas presents you give your child, there’s always that terrible moment when he’s opened the very last one. That’s when he expects you to say, ‘Oh yes, I almost forgot,’ and take him out and show him the pony.
Mignon McLaughlin

What about an authentic Pennsylvania Dutch Christmas? Drink some gluhwein, enjoy some hasenpfeffer.
Dwight Schrute

Christmas is awesome. First of all, you got to spend time with people you love. Secondly, you can get drunk and no one can say anything.
Michael Scott

But what do I care about having a good Christmas? The problem is the other 364 days.
Francesco De Collibus

Christmas, that annual celebration of parental guilt and juvenile greed.
P.D. James

It will be a very traditional Christmas, with presents, crackers, doors slamming and people bursting into tears.
Victoria Wood

Down the chimney? You want me to take the toys down the chimney into a strange house, in my underwear?
Scott Calvin

Let’s be naughty and save Santa the trip.
Gary Allan

It’s always consoling to know that today’s Christmas gifts are tomorrow’s garage sales.
Milton Berle

Rome, the Baby Jesus was stolen from the nativity scene in the Imperial Forums. Word has spread that his father is very high up.
Lia Celi

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, it would be Christmas every day.
John Boehner

It’s easier to feel a little more spiritual with a couple of bucks in your pocket.
Craig Ferguson

There are three stages of man: he believes in Santa Claus; he does not believe in Santa Claus; he is Santa Claus.
Bob Phillips

You can’t fool me – there ain’t no Sanity Clause!
Chico Marx

Keep your friends close, your enemies closer and receipts for all major purchases.
Bridger Winegar

Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.
Larry Wilde

A Christmas miracle is when your family doesn’t get into a single argument all day.
Melanie White

The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.
Buddy, Elf

One thing I learned from drinking is that if you ever go Christmas caroling, you should go with a group of people. And also go in mid-December.
Louis C.K.

I left Santa gluten-free cookies and organic soy milk, and he put a solar panel in my stocking.
Earthman Adam

In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it ‘Christmas’ and went to church; the Jews called it ‘Hanukkah’ and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say ‘Merry Christmas!’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah!’ or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!’
Dave Barry

Christmas: It’s the only religious holiday that’s also a federal holiday. That way, Christians can go to their services, and everyone else can sit at home and reflect on the true meaning of the separation of church and state.
Samantha Bee

Christmas is a baby shower that went totally overboard.
Andy Borowitz

I don’t want Christmas season to end because it’s the only time I can legitimately indulge in one particular addiction: glitter.
Eloisa James

God invites us to humility and simplicity,” said the man who wore golden vestments while officiating Christmas Mass.
Massimo Meoni

Nothing’s as mean as giving a little child something useful for Christmas.
Kin Hubbard

The ideal Christmas gift is money, but the trouble is you can’t charge it.
Bill Vaughan

That’s the true spirit of Christmas; people being helped by people other than me.
Jerry Seinfeld

Once again, we come to the holiday season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice.
Dave Barry

Santa Claus wears a red suit. He must be a communist. And long hair. He must be a pacifist. What’s in that pipe he’s smoking?
Arlo Guthrie

I just want to be rich enough to buy enough ornaments to cover more than one side of the tree.
Charlotte Christmas

I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, ‘Toys not included.’
Bernard Manning

Today I put up the Christmas tree. With the current crisis, I’m trying to earn some money by dressing up as a Christmas tree.
Massimo Bozza

Christmas is almost here. I’ll try to escape through the window.
Anonymous

Of course, Santa is dead. You force a guy to eat a billion cookies in one night, what do you think is going to happen?
Jimmy Kimmel

This past Christmas, I told my girlfriend for months in advance that all I wanted was an Xbox. That’s it. Beginning and end of list, Xbox. You know what she got me? A homemade frame with a picture of us from our first date together. Which was fine. Because I got her an Xbox. Anthony Jeselnik

This holiday season, no matter what your religion is, please take a moment to reflect on why it’s better than all the other ones.
Guy Endore Kaiser

Share these funny holiday quotes with your friends and family to spread Christmas joy, or use them as clever Christmas-themed Instagram captions. You can even use them on coffee mugs or T-shirts and give them as gifts!
Keep Watching

Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year.
Victor Borge

Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special! How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food and beer…Who’d have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment and spirituality would mix so harmoniously?
Bill Watterson

Sending Christmas cards is a good way to let your friends and family know that you think they’re worth the price of a stamp.
Melanie White

‘Mistletoe,’ said Luna dreamily, pointing at a large clump of white berries placed almost over Harry’s head. He jumped out from under it. ‘Good thinking,’ said Luna seriously. ‘It’s often infested with nargles.’
J.K. Rowling

More than Santa Claus, your sister knows when you’ve been bad and good.
Linda Sunshine

It’s all fun and games until Santa checks the naughty list.
Unknown

You can just hear Santa saying ‘Ho, Ho, Ho’ when you receive your credit card statement in January.
Kate Summers

Synthetic literature. Today: Christmas theme. Title: “I went with my girlfriend to see a nativity scene.” Development: “Two hearts, a hut.”
Andrea Balestrero

Christmas songs are like sexual intercourse: after the third one, you can’t take it anymore.
Flavio Oreglio

It’s Christmas Eve! It’s the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people that we always hoped we would be.
Bill Murray

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

Christmas: the one time of year when you can’t avoid the nuts in your family muesli.
Charles Stross

So I’ve started wearing sweatpants to bed because I really don’t need Santa seeing me in my underwear.
Jeff Kinney

I hate, loathe and despise Christmas. It’s a time when single people have to take cover or get out of town.
Kristin Hunter

Waiting for a special occasion to kill me? Christmas is coming.
Cassandra Clare

I wish we could put some of our Christmas spirit in jars and open one up every month.
Unknown

There are 17 more shopping days until Christmas. So, guys, that means 16 more days till we start shopping, right?
Conan O’Brien

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

Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas.
Johnny Carson

My wife, like many women, actually likes wrapping things. If she gives you a gift that requires batteries, she wraps the batteries separately, which to me is very close to being a symptom of mental illness.
Dave Barry

From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it.
Katharine Whitehorn

Do you know why so many people love Jesus? Without Jesus, no Christmas.
Melanie White

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

I never get to see Santa Claus come down the chimney because I always get too tired and fall asleep from eating all his cookies while waiting for him.
Theodore W. Higginsworth

There are a lot of things money can’t buy. Not one of them is on my son’s list.
Milton Berle

Christmas is the season when you buy this year’s gifts with next year’s money.
Unknown

Christmas to a child is the first terrible proof that to travel hopefully is better than to arrive.
Stephen Fry

My husband’s idea of getting the Christmas spirit is to become Scrooge.
Melanie White

Even before Christmas has said Hello, it’s saying ‘Buy Buy.’
Robert Paul

I bought my brother some gift wrap for Christmas. I took it to the Gift Wrap department and told them to wrap it, but in a different print so he would know when to stop unwrapping.
Steven Wright

At Christmas, tea is compulsory. Relatives are optional.
Robert Godden

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas. But if the white runs out, I’ll drink the red.
Unknown

It was two weeks before Christmas. A slow time of year for raising the dead.
Laurell K. Hamilton

People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas and New Year, but they really should be worried about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas.
Anonymous

One good thing about Christmas shopping is it toughens you for the January sales.
Grace Kriley

People really act weird at Christmas time! What other time of year do you sit in front of a dead tree in the living room and eat nuts and sweets out of your socks?
Unknown

The older I get, the fewer useless gifts I get. The fewer I get, the less I have to wrap to re-gift for next Christmas.
Robert Rivers

The office Christmas party is a great opportunity to catch up with people you haven’t seen for 20 minutes.
Julius Sharpe

Christmas is such a carefree, low-pressure time – that’s one of the things I love about it.
Stephen King

I haven’t taken my Christmas lights down. They look so nice on the pumpkin.
Winston Spear

Christmas is a box of tree ornaments that have become part of the family.
Charles M. Schulz

Nothing says holidays like a cheese log.
Ellen Degeneres

Thank you, Stockings, for being a long flammable piece of fabric people like to hang over a roaring fireplace.
Jimmy Fallon

Once you stop believing in Santa, you get underwear for Christmas.
Unknown

A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.
Garrison Keillor

Why is Christmas just like a day at the office? You do all the work, and the fat guy with the suit gets all the credit.
Unknown

Well, they’ll bark you down like carneys, sell you Christmas cards in June.
Tom Waits

Whenever you give someone a present or sing a holiday song, you’re helping Santa Claus. To me, that’s what Christmas is all about. Helping Santa Claus!
Louis Sachar

Our children await Christmas presents like politicians getting in election returns: There’s the Uncle Fred precinct and the Aunt Ruth district still to come in.
Marcelene Cox

Hey, great idea: if you have kids, give your partner reading vouchers next Christmas. Each voucher entitles the bearer to two hours’ reading time *while the kids are awake*. It might look like a cheapskate present, but parents will appreciate that it costs more in real terms than a Lamborghini.
Nick Hornby

Read also our other posts on Christmas;

Christmas markets in England ;

Christmas markets in Italy and Germany ;

Christmas quotes ;

60 great Christmas quotes ;

Christmas tree origin and quotes ; 

Ella Gray A Christmas story ;

Traditional Christmas Carols ;

Christmas short stories ;

Christmas jokes ;

Christmas cracker jokes ;

Funny Christmas Stories ;

Amusing Christmas stories ;

Christmas food ;

Christmas thoughts ;

Christmas story ;

Christmas in Italy ;

Christmas holidays ;

Christmas songs ;

Christmas poems ;

An Essay on Christmas by Chesterton ;

Quotes by authors

Quotes by arguments

Thoughts and reflections

Essays with quotes

News and events

Entertainment

60 sixty great Christmas quotes and aphorisms by famous authors selected by Carl William Brown for the World of English blog, that is English-culture.com

I wish you a Merry Christmas sparkle with endless love, gladness and goodwill.
Lailah Gifty Akita

The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.
George Carlin

Christmas can be hard for those who have lost loved ones. This year especially I understand why.
Queen Elizabeth II

At Christmas we must all be more good-natured, not more stupid!
Carl William Brown

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

Let’s be naughty and save Santa the trip.
Gary Allan

What do you think of Christmas?” “I like it,” she said. “I think we should have it every year.”
Liz Flaherty

Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you.
Steve Maraboli

At Christmas we should be more good, not stupider!
Carl William Brown

In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it ‘Christmas’ and went to church; the Jews called it ‘Hanukkah’ and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say ‘Merry Christmas!’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah!’ or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!’.
Dave Barry

Moving between the legs of tables and of chairs, rising or falling, grasping at kisses and toys, advancing boldly, sudden to take alarm, retreating to the corner of arm and knee, eager to be reassured, taking pleasure in the fragrant brilliance of the Christmas tree.
T. S. Eliot

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!
Charles Dickens

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

Christmas ought to be brought up to date,” Maria said. “It ought to have gangsters, and aeroplanes and a lot of automatic pistols.
John Masefield

Christmas Eve is my favorite… I think the anticipation is more fun than anything else. I kind of lost that. The idea that something – food, traditions, an arbitrary date on the calendar – can be special because we decide it should be. We make it special. Not just for ourselves, but for others.
Kiersten White

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

The two most joyous times of the year are Christmas morning and the end of school.
Alice Cooper

From a theological point of view, Easter is the center of the Church year; but Christmas is the most profoundly human feast of faith, because it allows us to feel most deeply the humanity of God. The crib has a unique power to show us what it means to say that God wished to be “Immanuel” a “God with us”, a God whom we may address in intimate language, because he encounters us as a child.
Pope Benedict XVI

Christmas it seems to me is a necessary festival; we require a season when we can regret all the flaws in our human relationships: it is the feast of failure, sad but consoling.
Graham Greene

I think commercialism helps Christmas and I think that the more capitalism we can inject into the Christmas holiday the more spiritual I feel about it.
Craig Ferguson

It’s funny to think that Christmas – a time known for its joyful togetherness – can be the loneliest time of the year for some.
Giovanna Fletcher

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies!
Francis Pharcellus Church

Yes’ it’s true that I hate Santa too, dressed in his suit of silk. That’s why this year with the homemade cookies, I’m going to leave some poison milk.
Mark W. Boyer

If you can’t find the spirit of the holidays in your heart, you’ll never find it under a tree.
Michael Holbrook

Stupid rich nations sell arms to helpless poor nations; then at Christmas they collect toys to send to the children of families ruined by the various conflicts of the planet.
Carl William Brown

I have always thought of Christmas-time… as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.
Charles Dickens

T’was the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
Clement Clarke Moore

Christmas isn’t a parade or concert but a piece of home you keep in your heart wherever you go.
Donna VanLiere

The Christmas story is penmanship of the most brilliant sort, where God crafted a beginning that would never be subject to an ending.
Craig D. Lounsbrough

Christmas is supposed to be this time when everyone is nice to one another and forgives one another and all that, but the true meaning of Christmas is presents. And in the real world, Santa’s not fair. Rich kids get everything and poor kids get secondhand crap their parents bust their asses to afford. It costs money just to sit on Santa’s lap.
Holly Black

There’s no experience quite like cutting your own live Christmas tree out of your neighbor’s yard.
Dan Florence

And then she realized that after that Christmas party, she didn’t really lose anything, except respect for everyone.”
Crystal Woods

Of course there is a Santa Claus. It’s just that no single somebody could do all he has to do. So the Lord has spread the task among us all. That’s why everybody is Santa Claus. I am. You are.”
Truman Capote

The three phases of Santa belief: Santa is real; Santa isn’t real; Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
Alton Thompson

There is at Christmas time a great deal of hypocrisy, honourable hypocrisy, hypocrisy undertaken pour le bon motif, c’est entendu, but nevertheless hypocrisy!
Agatha Christie

I am sorry to have to introduce the subject of Christmas into these articles. It is an indecent subject; a cruel, gluttonous subject; a drunken, disorderly subject; a wasteful, disastrous, subject; a wicked, cadging, lying, filthy, blashphemous, and demoralizing subject. Christmas is forced on a reluctant and disgusted nation by the shopkeepers and the press: on its own merits it would wither and shrivel in the fiery breath of universal hatred; and any one who looked back to it would be turned into a pillar of greasy sausages.
George Bernard Shaw

I don’t think Christmas is necessarily about things. It’s about being good to one another, it’s about the Christian ethic, it’s about kindness.
Carrie Fisher

Christmas is best pondered, not with logic, but with imagination.
Max Lucado

I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a a note on it saying, toys not included.
Bernard Manning

Keeping Christ in Christmas” is like showing up at someone’s house every year, insisting on a party they never planned and never agreed to.
Rebecca McKinsey

From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it.
Katharine Whitehorn

Christmas time! That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeling is not roused—in whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakened—by the recurrence of Christmas.
Charles Dickens

Halloween isn’t the only time for ghosts and ghost stories. In Victorian Britain, spooky winter’s tales were part of the Christmas season, often told after dinner, over port or coffee.
Michael Dirda

Christmas is a conspiracy to make single people feel lonely.
Armistead Maupin

What I don’t like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day.
Phyllis Diller

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.
Benjamin Franklin

Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.
Dale Evans Rogers

And so this is Christmas…what have you done?
John Lennon

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

Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles
Author Unknown

We were so poor that my old man would go outside every Christmas and shoot his gun then come back and tell us that Santa Claus had committed suicide
Jack La Motta

The Pope: the only who never sees his boss, even at Christmas.
Author Unknown

What kind of Christmas present would Jesus ask Santa for?
Salman Rushdie

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

People can’t concentrate properly on blowing other people to pieces if their minds are poisoned by thoughts suitable to the twenty-fifth of December.
Ogden Nash

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.
Harlan Miller

Santa Claus has the right idea – visit people only once a year.
Victor Borge

Christmas is a time when you get homesick – even when you’re home.
Carol Nelson

I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark
Dick Gregory

Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we’re here for something else besides ourselves.
Eric Sevareid

Christmas is a holiday that we celebrate not as individuals nor as a nation, but as a human family.
Ronald Reagan

There is no more dangerous or disgusting habit than that of celebrating Christmas before it comes.
G.K. Chesterton

Our Playlist of best Christmas songs

Read also our other posts on Christmas  ;

Christmas quotes ;

Best Christmas songs ;

60 great Christmas quotes ;

Christmas tree origin and quotes ; 

Traditional Christmas Carols ;

Christmas jokes ;

Christmas cracker jokes ;

Christmas best humorous quotes ;

Christmas food ;

Christmas thoughts ;

Christmas story ;

Christmas in Italy ;

Christmas holidays ;

Christmas songs ;

Christmas poems ;

An Essasy on Christmas by Chesterton ;

Quotes by authors

Quotes by arguments

Thoughts and reflections

Essays with quotes

News and events

Entertainment

Christmas great quotes and memorable aphorisms by The world of English, that is the English-Culture.com Blog and Carl William Brown.

The purpose and cause of the incarnation was that He might illuminate the world by His wisdom and excite it to the love of Himself.
Peter Abelard

It is a myth, not a mandate; a fable, not a logic, and symbol rather than a reason by which men are moved.
Irwin Edman

A woman spent all Christmas Day in a telephone box without ringing anyone. If someone comes to phone, she leaves the box, then resumes her place afterwards. No one calls her either, but from a window in the street, someone watched her all day, no doubt since they had nothing better to do. The Christmas syndrome.
Jean Baudrillard

Christmas can be hard for those who have lost loved ones. This year especially I understand why.
Queen Elizabeth II (December 2021)

What kind of Christmas present would Jesus ask Santa for?
Salman Rushdie

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

At Christmas we must all be more good-natured, not more stupid!
Carl William Brown

At Christmas everyone is better. It’s what happens before and after that worries me.
Lucy van Pelt (from Charles Schulz’s Peanuts)

People can’t concentrate properly on blowing other people to pieces if their minds are poisoned by thoughts suitable to the twenty-fifth of December. 
Ogden Nash

Midnight, and the clock strikes. It is Christmas Day, the werewolves birthday, the door of the solstice still wide enough open to let them all slink through.
Angela Carter

What life and death may be to a turkey is not my business; but the soul of Scrooge and the body of Cratchit are my business.
G.K. Chesterton

Whatever else be lost among the years, Let us keep Christmas still a shining thing; Whatever doubts assail us, or what fears, Let us hold close one day, remembering Its poignant meaning for the hearts of men. Let us get back our childlike faith again.
Grace Noll Crowell

The universal joy of Christmas is certainly wonderful. We ring the bells when princes are born, or toll a mournful dirge when great men pass away. Nations have their red-letter days, their carnivals and festivals, but once in the year and only once, the whole world stands still to celebrate the advent of a life. Only Jesus of Nazareth claims this world-wide, undying remembrance. You cannot cut Christmas out of the Calendar, nor out of the heart of the world.
Anonymous

Year of the Lord 2023, after 63 years this is the first Christmas without my mother who passed away last October, and I can assure you that I am heartbroken, desolate, anguished, sad, melancholy, anxious, angry, fearful and without any desire to celebrate, or to live.
Carl William Brown

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month. 
Harlan Miller

Scrooge went to the church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and for, and patted the children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of homes, and up to the windows, and found that everything could yield him pleasure.
Charles Dickens

Even as an adult I find it difficult to sleep on Christmas Eve. Yuletide excitement is a potent caffeine, no matter your age.
Terri Guillemets

Christmas is a time when you get homesick – even when you’re home. 
Carol Nelson

Any one thinking of the Holy Child as born in December would mean by it exactly what we mean by it; that Christ is not merely a summer sun of the prosperous but a winter fire for the unfortunate.
G.K. Chesterton

Christmas is just like your job. You do all the work and the fat guy with the suit gets all the credit.
Author Unknown

I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark
Dick Gregory

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. 
Charles Dickens

Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we’re here for something else besides ourselves.
Eric Sevareid

Christmas is not a date. It is a state of mind.
Mary Ellen Chase

Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
Calvin Coolidge

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
Charles Dickens

Anything that inspires unselfishness makes for our ennoblement. Christmas does that. I am all for Christmas.
B.C. Forbes

I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year.
David Grayson

Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.
Washington Irving

A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.
Garrison Keillor

Call a truce, then, to our labors – let us feast with friends and neighbors, and be merry as the custom of our caste. For if “faint and forced the laughter,” and if sadness follow after, we are richer by one mocking Christmas past.
Rudyard Kipling

Wretched excess is an unfortunate human trait that turns a perfectly good idea such as Christmas into a frenzy of last-minute shopping.
Jon Anderson

Santa Claus wears a Red Suit, he must be a communist. And a beard and long hair, must be a pacifist. What’s in that pipe that he’s smoking?
Arlo Guthrie

Christmas itself may be called into question, If carried so far it creates indigestion.
Ralph Bergengren

Christmas is a conspiracy to make single people feel lonely.
Armistead Maupin

There are some people who want to throw their arms round you simply because it is Christmas; there are other people who want to strangle you simply because it is Christmas.
Robert Lynd

Please to put a nickel, please to put a dime. How petitions trickle in at Christmas time!
Phyllis McGinley

This is the month, and this the happy morn, wherein the Son of heaven’s eternal King, of wedded Maid and Virgin Mother born, our great redemption from above did bring.
John Milton

Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart … filled it, too, with melody that would last forever.
Bess Streeter Aldrich

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 waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
Norman Vincent Peale

Christmas is a holiday that we celebrate not as individuals nor as a nation, but as a human family.
Ronald Reagan

Christmas – that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance.  It may weave a spell of nostalgia.  Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance – a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved. 
Augusta E. Rundel

Christmas gift suggestions:  To your enemy, forgiveness.  To an opponent, tolerance.  To a friend, your heart.  To a customer, service.  To all, charity.  To every child, a good example.  To yourself, respect. 
Oren Arnold

When you with velvets mantled o’er, Defy December’s tempests frore, Oh! spare one garment from your store, To clothe the poor at Christmas.
William Robert Spencer

It is the most human and kindly of seasons, as fully penetrated and irradiated with the feeling of human brotherhood, which is the essential spirit of Christianity, as the month of June with sunshine and the balmy breath of roses. 
George William Curtis

‘Twas Christmas broach’d the mightiest ale; ‘Twas Christmas told the merriest tale; A Christmas gambol oft could cheer The poor man’s heart through half the year.
Walter Scott

Instead of being a time of unusual behavior, Christmas is perhaps the only time in the year when people can obey their natural impulses and express their true sentiments without feeling self-conscious and, perhaps, foolish.  Christmas, in short, is about the only chance a man has to be himself. 
Francis C. Farley

Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.
Dale Evans Rogers

Christ was born in the first century, yet he belongs to all centuries. He was born a Jew, yet He belongs to all races. He was born in Bethlehem, yet He belongs to all countries.
George W. Truett

God walked down the stairs of heaven with a Baby in His arms.
Paul Scherer

‘Twas Christmas broach’d the mightiest ale; ‘twas Christmas told the merriest tale; a Christmas gambol oft could cheer the poor man’s heart through half the year.
Sir Walter Scott

It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.
Charles Dickens

Christmas is the time for looking ahead courageously through the gates of the swiftly approaching new year … of resolving that the coming months will reflect a kinder, more forgiving and less heedless person than mirrored in the past.
Ellen V. Morgan

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.
Roy L. Smith

Christmas began in the heart of God. It is complete only when it reaches the heart of man.
Author Unknown

Three phrases that sum up Christmas are:  Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men, and Batteries not Included. 
Author Unknown

I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included. 
Bernard Manning

Merry Christmas! … What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ‘em through a round dozen of months presented against you? If I would work my will … every idiot who goes about with “Merry Christmas,” on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.
Charles Dickens

Christmas begins about the first of December with an office party and ends when you finally realize what you spent, around April fifteenth of the next year. 
P.J. O’Rourke

The message of Christmas is that the visible material world is bound to the invisible spiritual world.
Author Unknown

Christmas is for children.  But it is for grown-ups too.  Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts. 
Lenora Mattingly Weber

May the spirit of Christmas bring you peace, The gladness of Christmas give you hope, The warmth of Christmas grant you love.
Author Unknown

The spirit of Christmas is always near; it shines like a beacon throughout the year. Don’t look in a store or high on a shelf, for sharing and giving are found in yourself.
Author Unknown

So stick up ivy and the bays, and then restore the heathen ways, green will remind you of the Spring, though this great day denies the thing, and mortifies the earth, and all, but your wild revels, and loose hall.
Henry Vaughan

From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it.
Katharine Whitehorn

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home! 
Charles Dickens

There is no more dangerous or disgusting habit than that of celebrating Christmas before it comes.
G.K. Chesterton

Be merry all, be merry all, With holly dress the festive hall; Prepare the song, the feast, the ball, To welcome merry Christmas.
William Robert Spencer

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

Wouldn’t life be worth the living Wouldn’t dreams be coming true If we kept the Christmas spirit All the whole year through?
Author Unknown

The universal joy of Christmas is certainly wonderful.  We ring the bells when princes are born, or toll a mournful dirge when great men pass away.  Nations have their red-letter days, their carnivals and festivals, but once in the year and only once, the whole world stands still to celebrate the advent of a life. 
Author Unknown

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60 great Christmas quotes ;

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Traditional Christmas Carols ;

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Halloween holiday, October 31, story and legend. As the eve of All Saints’ Day, it is a religious holiday among some Christians.

Halloween for the year 2025 is celebrated/observed on Friday, October 31st.

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
William Shakespeare

My mother gave me life and when she died she also took it away, so spirits and memories are the only things left.
Carl William Brown

When witches go riding, and black cats are seen, the moon laughs and whispers ‘tis near Halloween.
Anonymous

Use your imagination not to scare yourself to death but to inspire yourself to life.
Adele Brookman.

Don’t let past ghosts spook away present gifts.
Jane Lee Logan.

Whatever costumes you wear, don’t forget your tiara even if it’s only on the inside.
Jane Lee Logan.

Where there is no imagination there is no fear.
Author Unknown.

Be the energy you want to attract.
Author Unknown

I love Halloween, and I love that feeling: the cold air, the spooky dangers lurking around the corner.
Evan Peters

Every day is Halloween, isn’t it? For some of us.
Tim Burton

There is magic in the night when pumpkins glow by moonlight.
Anonymous

Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen. Voices whisper in the trees, “Tonight is Halloween!”
Dexter Kozen

HALLOWEEN also called All Hallows’ Eve

holiday, October 31, now observed largely as a secular celebration. As the eve of All Saints’ Day, it is a religious holiday among some Christians.

Halloween had its origins in the festival of Samhain among the Celts of ancient Britain and Ireland. November 1 was considered the end of the summer period, the date on which the herds were returned from pasture and land tenures were renewed. The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes regarded as the “Celtic New Year.” The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate themTraditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient Celtic pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the living and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. It was also a time when the souls of those who had died were believed to return to visit their homes. People set bonfires on hilltops for relighting their hearth fires for the winter and to frighten away evil spirits, and they sometimes wore masks and other disguises to avoid being recognized by the ghosts thought to be present. It was in these ways that beings such as witches, hobgoblins, fairies, and demons came to be associated with the day. The period was also thought to be favourable for divination on matters such as marriage, health, and death. When the Romans conquered the Celts in the 1st century ad, they added their own festivals of Feralia, commemorating the passing of the dead, and of Pomona, the goddess of the harvest.

In the 7th century ad, Pope Boniface IV established All Saints’ Day, originally on May 13, and in the following century, perhaps in an effort to supplant the pagan holiday with a Christian observance, it was moved to November 1. The evening before All Saints’ Day became a holy, or hallowed, eve and thus Halloween. By the end of the Middle Ages, the secular and the sacred days had merged. The Reformation essentially put an end to the religious holiday among Protestants, although in Britain especially Halloween continued to be celebrated as a secular holiday. Along with other festivities, the celebration of Halloween was largely forbidden among the early American colonists, although in the 1800s there developed festivals that marked the harvest and incorporated elements of Halloween. When large numbers of immigrants, including the Irish, went to the United States beginning in the mid 19th century, they took their Halloween customs with them, and in the 20th century Halloween became one of the principal U.S. holidays, particularly among children.

Halloween flourished in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, parts of England and in isolated localities such as the Orkney and Shetland Islands. In these places during this celebration the inhabitants lighted bonfires on hilltops and played Halloween games such as “Bob apple.” They also engaged in divination by such means as pulling kale, placing stones or nuts in the fire and throwing a shoe over the house. Some divination occured even on the church porch, which was believed to be an especially reliable place to learn of future events. Pranks and mischief were also common on Halloween in rural areas of Ireland and Great Britain. Wandering groups of celebrants blocked doors of houses with carts, carried away gates and plows, tapped on windows, threw vegetables at doors and covered chimneys with turf so that smoke could not escape. In some places, girls and boys dressed in clothing of the opposite sex and, wearing masks, visited neighbours to play tricks. These activities generally resembled the harmful and mischievous behaviour attributed to witches, fairies and goblins. The contenporary “trick or treat” custom resembles an ancient Irish practice associated with Allhallows Eve. Groups of peasants went from house to house demanding food and other gift in preparation for the evening’s festivities. Prosperity was assured for liberal donors and threats were made against stingy ones.

Immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland took secular Halloween customs to the U.S., but the festival did not become popular in that country until the latter part of the 19th century. This may have been because it had long been popular with the Irish, who migrated there in large numbers after 1840. In any event, a number of the traditional Halloweens symbols and folk practice appeared in the U.S. during the late 1800s. Among these were the figures of the witch, the black cat, the death’s head cut from a pumpkin, candles, bobbing for apples, the trick or treat custom, masks, parties and pranks. Though some churches observed Halloween with religious services, most persons regarded it as a secular festival. This reflected the prevailing American Protestant attitude toward a great many church festivals and holy days. During the latter decades of the 19th century, Halloween pranks and mischief became common in the U.S. and often descended to vandalism. In rural areas, fences were built across roads, wagons placed on top of barns, gates removed, outbuildings overturned and farm animals hidden. In cities and towns, “spooks” placed porch furniture on top of telephone poles, overturned garbage cans, opened water faucets and soaped windows in houses and stores. In some cities overenthusiastic celebrants filled cloth sacks with flour and rubbed these against the clothing of passers-by. In the course of the 20th century, the American public became less tolerant of Halloween pranks. This was the result, in large part, of a different mode of life, brought about by increasing urbanization and the ubiquity of the automobile. These factors altered the material environment and lessened the vitality of folk beliefs and customs. In addition, Halloween mischief became very costly to property owners and was of serious concern to public officials.

Consequently, civic authorities and private citizens attempted to deal with this difficulty by both repressive and educational means. As early as 1908 some U.S. community sponsored Halloween parties for the young in the hope of preventing injury to life or possessions. The police, local merchants or civic groups organized these festivities, and both parents and teachers cautioned children against vandalism. In some istances, merchants even invited the young to soap the windows of their stores on Halloween in the belief that this might lessen property damage. These efforts had only limited success. Nowadays the tendency to manipulate rather than to celebrate folk festivals such as Halloween is charateristic of the 20th century. It reflects the growing influence of a rational outlook on life and the loss of interest in imagination and fantasy. The secular character of contemporary culture is also reflected in public neglect of the religious significance of Halloween as well as in progressive loss of its folk vitality. Children are least effected by this disenchantment and consequently the more important folk occasions tend to be dominated by the young.

As a secular holiday, Halloween has come to be associated with a number of activities. One is the practice of pulling usually harmless pranks. Celebrants wear masks and costumes for parties and for trick-or-treating A group of children trick-or-treating on Halloween. It is thought to have derived from the British practice of allowing the poor to beg for food, called “soul cakes.” Trick-or-treaters go from house to house with the threat that they will pull a trick if they do not receive a treat, usually candy. Halloween parties often include games such as bobbing for apples, perhaps derived from the Roman celebration of Pomona. Along with skeletons and black cats, the holiday has incorporated scary beings such as ghosts, witches, and vampires into the celebration. Another symbol is the jack-o’-lantern, a hollowed-out pumpkin, originally a turnip, carved into a demonic face and lit with a candle inside. Since the mid 20th century, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has attempted to make the collection of money for its programs a part of Halloween.

The concept of ‘trick or treating’ is a relatively modern custom but the origins are steeped much deeper in history. The concept of offering something at the doorstep in return for food or drink goes back way beyond the middle ages and crosses the oceans to Scotland, Ireland and England. It is only since the late 1920’s that Halloween has been a popular tradition in the US. The earliest recording of the term “trick or treat” appeared in 1927, in Blackie, Alberta in which “Hallowe’en provided an opportunity for real strenuous fun”. In American holiday custom, a hollowed-out-pumpkin lantern that is displayed on Halloween. The surface of the pumpkin is carved to resemble a face. Light from a candle inserted inside can be seen flickering through the jack-o’-lantern’s cutout eyes, nose, and usually grotesquely grinning mouth. The custom originated in the British Isles, with a large turnip or other vegetable rather than a pumpkin, fruit is also used in puddings and soups. It may be used interchangeably with squash in various prepared dishes. Pumpkins are used in the United States as Halloween decorations, one such being the jack-o’-lantern, in which the interior of the pumpkin is cleaned out and a light inserted to shine through a face carved through the wall of the fruit.

Dictionary

Prank: A mischievous trick or practical joke.
Prick: a. The act of piercing or pricking. b. The sensation of being pierced or pricked. 3. Vulgar Slang A penis. 4. Vulgar Slang A person regarded as highly unpleasant, especially a male.
Prat: Slang The buttocks. Slang an incompetent or ineffectual person: often used as a term of abuse. (Pirla)
Spook: 1. Informal A ghost; a specter. 2. Slang A secret agent; a spy. 3. Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a Black person.

Foods

Because the holiday comes in the wake of the annual apple harvest, candy apples (also known as toffee, caramel, or taffy apples) are a common Halloween treat made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, sometimes followed by rolling them in nuts.
Candy appleAt one time, candy apples were commonly given to children, but the practice rapidly waned in the wake of widespread rumors that some individuals were embedding items like pins and razor blades in the apples. While there is evidence of such incidents, they are quite rare and have never resulted in serious injury. Nonetheless, many parents assumed that such heinous practices were rampant. At the peak of the hysteria, some hospitals offered free x-rays of children’s Halloween hauls in order to find evidence of tampering. Virtually all of the few known candy poisoning incidents involved parents who poisoned their own children’s candy, and there have been occasional reports of children putting needles in their own (and other children’s) candy in a bid for attention.
One custom that persists in modern-day Ireland is the baking (or more often nowadays, the purchase) of a barmbrack (Irish “báirín breac”), which is a light fruitcake into which a plain ring, a coin, and other charms are placed before baking. It is said that those who get a ring will find their true love in the ensuing year. See also king cake.

Games and other activities

There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween parties. The most common is dunking or apple bobbing, in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water; the participants must use their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. A variant of dunking involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drop the fork into an apple. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity that inevitably leads to a very sticky face.

Some games traditionally played at Halloween are forms of divination. In Puicíní (pronounced “poocheeny”), a game played in Ireland, a blindfolded person is seated in front of a table on which several saucers are placed. The saucers are shuffled, and the seated person then chooses one by touch; the contents of the saucer determine the person’s life during the following year. A saucer containing earth means someone known to the player will die during the next year; a saucer containing water foretells emigration; a ring foretells marriage; a set of Rosary beads indicates that the person will take Holy Orders (becoming a nun or a priest). A coin means new wealth, a bean means poverty, and so on. In 19th-century Ireland, young women placed slugs in saucers sprinkled with flour. A traditional Irish and Scottish form of divining one’s future spouse is to carve an apple in one long strip, then toss the peel over one’s shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse’s name. This custom has survived among Irish and Scottish immigrants in the rural United States.

Unmarried women were frequently told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror. However, if they were destined to die before marriage, a skull would appear. The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The mirror gaze was one of many forms of love divination around Halloween and other ancient holy days.

The telling of ghost stories and viewing of horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties. Episodes of TV series and specials with Halloween themes (with the specials usually aimed at children) are commonly aired on or before the holiday, while new horror films, like the popular Saw films, are often released theatrically before the holiday to take advantage of the atmosphere.

Bob apple game: a traditional Halloween game enjoyed by young and old. Bobbing for apples requires a large tub of water, apples and a group of people willing to get their faces – and maybe their heads – wet.
Instructions: 1) Find a large, deep trash container or party tub that at least two people can get their heads into at the same time. 2) Set trash container on ground, or place tub on a table or cart strong enough to hold it when it is full of water. The top of the trash container or tub should be about waist-high to participants in the game. 3) Fill tub with water, leaving 4 to 6 inches of space at the top so that water doesn’t slosh out. 4) Float several apples in water. 5) Place some towels at base of the tub so that the floor won’t get wet, if playing inside. 6) Select first two or three players and have them put their hands behind their backs. 7) Say, “Go,” and have players try to grab an apple with their teeth, all at the same time. The first to bring an apple up wins. 8) Provide towels for all players. Even losers will be wet.

During the day, I don’t believe in ghosts. At night, I’m a little more open-minded.
Anonymous

There is nothing that gives more assurance than a mask.
Colette

I must go in. The fog is rising.
Emily Dickinson

Everyone is the moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.

Halloween wraps fear in innocence, as though it were a slightly sour sweet. Let terror, then, be turned into a treat…
Nick Gordon

Halloween is a chance to overcome all your fear.

Being in a band you can wear whatever you want – it’s like an excuse for Halloween every day.
Gwen Stefani

The best way to overcome your fear is to unfold it. Conquering your greatest fear make you win the world.

THE LEGEND OF STINGY JACK  (First version)

Stingy Jack was a miserable, old drunk who loved playing tricks on anyone and everyone. One dark, Halloween night, Jack ran into the Devil himself in a local public house. Jack tricked the Devil by offering his soul in exchange for one last drink. The Devil quickly turned himself into a sixpence to pay the bartender, but Jack immediately snatched the coin and deposited it into his pocket, next to a silver cross that he was carrying. Thus, the Devil could not change himself back and Jack refused to allow the Devil to go free until the Devil had promised not to claim Jack’s soul for ten years.
The Devil agreed, and ten years later Jack again came across the Devil while out walking on a country road. The Devil tried collecting what he was due, but Jack thinking quickly, said, “I’ll go, but before I do, will you get me an apple from that tree?”
The Devil, thinking he had nothing to lose, jumped up into the tree to retrieve an apple. As soon as he did, Jack placed crosses all around the trunk of the tree, thus trapping the Devil once again. This time, Jack made the Devil promise that he would not take his soul when he finally died. Seeing no way around his predicament, the Devil grudgingly agreed.
When Stingy Jack eventually passed away several years later, he went to the Gates of Heaven, but was refused entrance because of his life of drinking and because he had been so tight-fisted and deceitful. So, Jack then went down to Hell to see the Devil and find out whether it were possible to gain entrance into the depths of Hell, but the Devil kept the promise that had been made to Jack years earlier, and would not let him enter.

“But where can I go?” asked Jack.
“Back to where you came from!” replied the Devil.

The way back was windy and very dark. Stingy Jack pleaded with the Devil to at least provide him with a light to help find his way. The Devil, as a final gesture, tossed Jack an ember straight from the fires of Hell. Jack placed the ember in a hollowed-out turnip…one of Jack’s favorite foods which he always carried around with him whenever he could steal one. From that day forward, Stingy Jack has been doomed to roam the earth without a resting place and with only his lit turnip to light the way in the darkness.
Stingy Jack, perhaps also known as Jack the Smith and Jack of the Lantern, is a mythical character apparently associated with All Hallows Eve. It is common lore that the “Jack-o-Lantern” is derived from the tale of Jack the Smith.

Watch other videos about this story:  Video 1 and Video 2

THE LEGEND OD STINGY JACK  (Second version)

As the story goes, several centuries ago amongst the myriad of towns and villages in Ireland, there lived a drunkard known as “Jack the Smith”. Jack was known throughout the land as a deceiver, manipulator and otherwise dreg of society. On a fateful night, the devil overheard the tale of Jack’s evil deeds and silver tongue. Unconvinced (and envious) of the rumors, the devil went to find out for himself whether or not Jack lived up to his vile reputation.

Typical of Jack, he was drunk and wandering through the countryside at night when he came upon a body on his cobblestone path. The body with an eerie grimace on its face turned out to be the Devil. Jack realized somberly this was his end; the devil had finally come to collect his malevolent soul. Jack made a last request: he asked the devil to let him drink ale before he departed to hell. Finding no reason not to acquiesce the request, the devil took Jack to the local pub and supplied him with many alcoholic beverages. Upon quenching his thirst, Jack asked the devil to pay the tab on the ale, to the devil’s surprise. Jack convinced the devil to metamorphose into a silver coin with which to pay the bartender (impressed upon by Jack’s unyielding nefarious tactics). Shrewdly, Jack stuck the now transmogrified devil (coin) into his pocket, which also contained a crucifix. The crucifix’s presence prevented the devil from escaping his form. This coerced the devil into agree to Jack’s demand: in exchange for the devil’s freedom, the devil had to spare Jack’s soul for 10 years.

Ten years later to the date when Jack originally struck his deal, he found himself once again in the devil’s presence. Same as the setting before, Jack happened upon the devil and seemingly accepted it was his time to go to hell for good. As the devil prepared to take him to the underworld, Jack asked if he could have one apple to feed his starving belly. Foolishly the devil once again agreed to this request. As the devil climbed up the branches of a nearby apple tree, Jack surrounded its base with crucifixes. The devil, frustrated at the fact that he been entrapped again, demanded his release. As Jack did before, he demanded that his soul never be taken by the devil into hell. The devil agreed and was set free.

Eventually the drinking and unstable lifestyle took its toll on Jack; he died the way he lived. As Jack’s soul prepared to enter heaven through the gates of St. Peter he was stopped. Jack was told that because of his sinful lifestyle of deceitfulness and drinking, he was not allowed into heaven. The dreary Jack went before the Gates of Hades and begged for commission into underworld. The devil, fulfilling his obligation to Jack, could not take his soul. To warn others, he gave Jack an ember, marking him a denizen of hell. From that day on until eternity’s end, Jack is doomed to roam the world between the planes of good and evil, with only an ember inside a hollowed turnip (“turnip” actually referring to a large swede) to light his way.

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