Seasonal quotes for Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve morning!

We’re here to set the mood with a collection of literary quotes, from the classics to contemporary work.

And even if you’re not celebrating the holiday, we hope you can at least celebrate these writers’ skills with words.

“And if it happened to be a Christmas-night when the great bell seemed to rattle in its throat as it called the faithful to the midnight mass, there was such an indescribable air of life spread over the sombre facade that the great door-way looked as if it were swallowing the entire crowd, and the rose-window staring at them.” — Victor Hugo (from The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

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

“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 (from Song of Years)

“Christmas Day is the children’s, but the holidays are youth’s dancing-time.” — Booth Tarkington (from The Magnificent Ambersons)

“Christmas is like candy; it slowly melts in your mouth sweetening every taste bud, making you wish it could last forever.” — Richelle E. Goodrich (from Smile Anyway)

“Christmas was close at hand, in all his bluff and hearty honesty; it was the season of hospitality, merriment, and open-heartedness; the old year was preparing, like an ancient philosopher, to call his friends around him, and amidst the sound of feasting and revelry to pass gently and calmly away.” — Charles Dickens (from The Pickwick Papers)

“Christmas works like glue, it keeps us all sticking together.” ― Rosie Thomas (from Iris & Ruby)

“He had been to see Mrs. Erlich just before starting home for the holidays, and found her making German Christmas cakes. She took him into the kitchen and explained the almost holy traditions that governed this complicated cookery. Her excitement and seriousness as she beat and stirred were very pretty, Claude thought. She told off on her fingers the many ingredients, but he believed there were things she did not name: the fragrance of old friendships, the glow of early memories, belief in wonder-working rhymes and songs.” — Willa Cather (from One of Ours)

“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

“Fine old Christmas, with the snowy hair and ruddy face, had done his duty that year in the noblest fashion, and had set off his rich gifts of warmth and color with all the heightening contrast of frost and snow.” — George Eliot (from The Mill on the Floss)

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!” ― Charles Dickens (from A Christmas Carol)

“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.” — Laura Ingalls Wilder

“The rooms were very still while the pages were softly turned and the winter sunshine crept in to touch the bright heads and serious faces with a Christmas greeting.” — Louisa May Alcott (from Little Women)

“The smells of Christmas are the smells of childhood.” ― Richard Paul Evans (from The Christmas Box)

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas ... perhaps ... means a little bit more!” ― Dr. Seuss (from How the Grinch Stole Christmas!)

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