I was always the kid who wanted Christmas to not come, because I realized at a pretty early age that no matter what you got, there’s always a little bit of a letdown. It’s like, ‘Oh, gee, I wanted two ponies, not one.’
I’m one of those people who had Christmas and my birthday always combined, and generally, my birthday was pretty much ignored. But my parents are always good about making some kind of special effort to make me feel like I also have a birthday that exists.
When I was a kid and Christmas was coming up, my dad would ask me what I wanted, and I always said a motorbike. I kept asking for one, and he said it was too dangerous and bought me a go-kart instead.
When I was young, we always went to our posh cousins at Christmas. My dad made sure we had new shoes and clean clothes – he was really proud – and that’s why I felt different from everyone living around me. We had the first television on the estate, the first fridge.
At the age of 12, my parents gave me a chemistry set for Christmas, and experimentation soon became a consuming passion in my life.
Back in the 1950s and ’60s, J. M. Barrie’s ‘Peter Pan’ – starring Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard – was regularly aired on network television during the Christmas season. I must have seen it four or five times and remember, in particular, Ritchard’s gloriously camp interpretation of Captain Hook.
Christmas was the one time of year when my brothers surfaced at home, when my parents and grandparents congregated to eat my mother’s roast turkey.
When I was a child, I always went to my grandmother’s house in Nuremberg for Christmas. My uncle would leave the room, saying he needed the toilet, and then he would reappear dressed as Santa Claus. I was really scared – I’d have to go and hide behind an armchair.
I did a Christmas movie where I played Mrs. Claus because my children’s favorite movie of all time was a Christmas movie that my father did in which he played Santa, and I was like, ‘How often do they make a movie about Mrs. Claus?’ and, ‘My kids will love this.’
Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store.
I write songs all the time. Sometimes they’re just weird songs I sing while changing a baby, or songs about annoying things that I sing to myself, or to friends while sitting at a bar, or about Christmas or New York.
There are a lot of Grinches out there that would like nothing better than to take any references to religion out of the holiday season.
Without social networks, you’re not the coolest thing on the Christmas list, and you’re not getting any bite.
I always felt like what I was doing wasn’t selling toys; I was making a happy sound at Christmas. When people hear something so familiar, it brings them back to a special place, and that’s been meaningful for me.
I make personal appearances around the country. I’m starting a book tour now, and I may be coming to Toronto with the Learning Annex, which I’m doing all through the United States, so that may come up just before Christmas.
As much as I liked the build-up to Christmas, the week after always socked me with the blues.
It may be a cliche, but it’s true – the build-up to Christmas is so much more pleasurable than the actual day itself.
Halloween starts earlier and earlier, just like Christmas.
I had always sung in choirs. Even when it was something to be laughed at or made fun of, you know, in school. And I was always the kid who was picked at the Christmas concert to sing the solo, you know, while the other kids snickered in the front few rows.
My first real job, I sold Christmas trees when I was twelve for extra money. I did that until I was fifteen. Then I bagged groceries, and I worked at the first Borders ever in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
I love the royal family. I even got up in the middle of the night to watch Kate and William’s wedding. And I never miss the Queen’s speech on Christmas Day. I feel it’s my duty as an English-born woman to watch.
Every St. Patrick’s Day in my hometown is such a huge thing. You know, it was like Christmas, but in green.
The two most joyous times of the year are Christmas morning and the end of school.
No sane local official who has hung up an empty stocking over the municipal fireplace, is going to shoot Santa Claus just before a hard Christmas.
Besides Christianity and specifically Catholicism being wonderful, Christmas is intrinsic to American culture and worth defending. Think of what happens at Christmas time. People play Mariah Carey Christmas songs… What else do you need in life?
I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up – they have no holidays.
Our family’s special holiday tradition is going over to my grandparent’s house on Christmas morning. My grandma cooks a big breakfast, and I love hearing her tell old funny stories.
To understand this Christmas record, you have to understand our ministry.
Contemplating Christmas when you are isolated and far from home brings its own unique pain.
My mom and dad always tried to make Christmas special for us. We were poor, but it’s funny because we had no idea.
If I’m ever stuck on the M25 – the ‘Road to Hell’ – I’ll wind the window down and start singing, ‘I’m driving home for Christmas’ at people in cars alongside. They love it. It’s like giving them a present.
Seeing lights being put up along the street and these colored lanterns called parols being put up at people’s houses makes Christmas in Philippines magical.
It’s very difficult in England because the season is very long and hard compared to other places. There’s not a lot of recovery time at all, not even a break at Christmas. You just have to do your best and get on with it.
It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it.
Neither my mom nor my dad ever bought me any comic books. Certainly not for Christmas. I suspect that doing so would have violated the Parents’ Code.
There’s a lot of movies that aren’t all about Christmas, or where Christmas isn’t the focus, but have that spirit of Christmas in them. I love that sequence in ‘Auntie Mame,’ where she’s in the department store, sewing at Macy’s, and she doesn’t know how to do anything but fill out a form as ‘cash on delivery!’
Christmas is the season I use to clock failure in life. It stops time, as it were, on the year – where you are in it, where you are in your travail unto the grave.
I’m sure most of us remember being a kid and you have all of this endless time where two weeks before Christmas feels like ten years. I used to go to bed to try and go to sleep to try and make it go faster.
We used to indulge hopelessly as a family at Christmas. When the children were little, I dressed up as Father Christmas. They knew it was a gag, but they loved it. I remember stealing into their bedrooms at 1 A.M. and filling the stockings up at the end of the bed.
You can separate the church and state all you like, but Christmas is inescapable, and it’s marvellous, and it’s not going away.
Santa is our culture’s only mythic figure truly believed in by a large percentage of the population. It’s a fact that most of the true believers are under eight years old, and that’s a pity.
That’s the true spirit of Christmas; people being helped by people other than me.
Most people think to make green bean casserole around Thanksgiving and Christmas, but honestly, I make this dish more during the summer, when green beans can be found fresh at the market. I think it is the perfect meal when served with crusty bread, a bountiful salad, and a cup or two of wine.
My son was 8 or 9, and he really wanted a gun. It was Christmas, and I said to my husband, ‘It’s time for a gun.’
At school, I’d be the dude singing to the girls, always up in the auditorium, in the lunch room singing Christmas carols, in the halls between class. I was always singing, and same thing with my grandfather. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree; you know how that goes.
I’d like to do a Christmas album. I’ve never done a Christmas album.
I associate the truest spirit of Christmas with certain years when I had to spend it at my parents’ house as an adult who had, presumably, escaped.
A title means marketing. It means that company’s coming soon, and you’d better get out the Christmas lights so they don’t miss your house.
Online, there’s no time. It’s always Christmas.
Working on ‘Nightmare Before Christmas,’ I had endless arguments, like the studio saying, ‘You can’t have a main character that’s got no eyeballs!’ ‘How is anybody going to feel for somebody with just eyesockets?’ You know? So, it’s those kind of things that really wear you down.
Christmas is a tonic for our souls. It moves us to think of others rather than of ourselves. It directs our thoughts to giving.
My family makes these vinegars – out of everything from grapes to peaches and cherries. We go through the whole process with the giant vat and drainer, label them, and give them as Christmas presents.
I owe my life to my father. I remember that my first Christmas present was a ball. In the district where we lived, there weren’t many kids who had one.
When I was five my parents bought me a ukulele for Christmas. I quickly learned how to play it with my father’s guidance. Thereafter, my father regularly taught me all the good old fashioned songs.
