When we made ‘Life in a Day,’ we asked people around the globe to record their lives on a single ordinary day. When we were cutting that film, we talked about what it might be like if we chose a day that already had significance to people. The result is ‘Christmas in a Day.’
I love ‘Call the Midwife’; it’s an absolute gem of a programme. Filming the Christmas special and then the second series felt like going back to a boarding school that you really love and is full of friends.
I was talking to one of my aunties at Christmas and she said she didn’t think it was ever in my nature to go against the grain, that I was always a good boy. I think she was right – I did always want to be good.
The most challenging roles were Disney’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Mars Needs Moms’ because they were both motion capture, so there was a lot of physical work involved.
It’s bad enough being conned into singing an anti-war message by John Lennon when you think you’re just wishing everyone a merry Christmas.
There is a lot to celebrate about that little Babe who was laid in a manger. Christians celebrate Christmas because they are thankful for the promise of salvation, which was delivered in human flesh and named Jesus.
I get very unsettled by the mess of Christmas. I find the decorations a little bit hard, as my desire for everything to match is never fully satisfied.
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.
I can remember being at Sandringham, for the first time, at Christmas. And I was worried what to give the Queen as her Christmas present. I was thinking, ‘Gosh, what should I give her?’. I thought, ‘I’ll make her something.’ Which could have gone horribly wrong. But I decided to make my granny’s recipe of chutney.
In our open society, we are inclined to give to the less fortunate for the pure goodness of giving. We open our home to those who are alone on this holiday to spread some warmth into the life of another.
I was supposed to be working on ‘The Weekenders,’ but I was blocked. I got this crazy idea that I would make Christmas stockings out of blankets.
Throughout my teenage years, I read ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens every December. It was a story that never failed to excite me, for as well as being a Dickens enthusiast, I have always loved ghost stories.
My father died when I was young and I was raised by my grandmother, Emma Klonjlaleh Brown. We could afford to eat chicken just once a year, on Christmas.
Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
Every Christmas, all around Ghana, there are tons of these parties and they are full of everything that exists in human life in Ghana and worldwide.
I save every Christmas card. I keep them all.
Well, traditionally, my husband and I go back to our farm in Virginia but we do Christmas every day. We truly do. For us, it’s about giving. We are of the Christian faith we believe that if people can see God in us, then we’re actually doing our job.
Every gift which is given, even though it be small, is in reality great, if it is given with affection.
For me growing up, Christmas time was always the most fantastic, exciting time of year, and you’d stay up until three in the morning. You’d hear the parents wrapping in the other room but you knew that also, maybe, they were in collusion with Santa Claus.
I’d been playing Ted in the show for about a year as well as playing in the group in my spare time. Then, at the ‘Scrubs’ Christmas party, I offered to bring along the band to sing a song. The producers thought we were terrible – but perfect for the show.
From a very young age, I liked to take apart things. All of my Christmas gifts would wind up in a million pieces. I actually recall taking apart my dad’s lawnmower three times to understand how combustible engines work.
I don’t like most Christmas movies. They’re pretty bad, though they seem to make tons of money anyway. Like this movie ‘Elf,’ I got the script for that, and I turned it down right away. Against my wife’s better judgment.
During the weeks before Christmas, though it’s not always possible, we make an effort to keep the kids away from shopping malls and stores. We also deliberately choose cards and decorations that have religious significance.
Frank Capra’s grandson was a second Assistant Director on ‘Christmas Vacation.’
I knew the training pitch better than anyone. When others went out clubbing, I went to sleep. When others had Christmas, I went out in the woods to run.
I was born with an extremely negative attitude. I was the kid who wouldn’t smile in Christmas photos, was a poor sport, and hated a lot of things. I eventually grew out of my negativity when I matured.
Isn’t that the great thing about Christmas? You get a lot of respite, time to recharge your batteries, time with family without too much else happening anywhere else in the world, time to focus on the people you love and the activities that you enjoy, time to exercise, to read.
Why is there an end of the year? Because the calendar imposes numerical order on time. There is a natural fitness in the celebration of the New Year, a holiday of numbers imposed on things, with lists, as well as with Advent calendars and songs like ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas.’
We don’t consider the Wizard of Oz or Father Christmas to be too old. They’re still magical characters, and the fact they’ve been around the block only adds to their magic.
Adults are tempted to produce and perform Christmas for their kids and their families, and they arrive at Christmas Day weary and disillusioned.
After Pride, Christmas is a drag queen’s next best holiday. It’s pretty gay, full of tinsel and glitter and finery and campness.
When it comes to referring to Dickens’s life, performing plays with your nine children for friends and family during Christmas is Dickensian.
If you want me to sing this Christmas song with the feeling and the meaning, you better see if you can locate that check.
I loved raising my kids. I loved the process, the dirt of it, the tears of it, the frustration of it, Christmas, Easter, birthdays, growth charts, pediatrician appointments. I loved all of it.
I did Christmas plays at school, but they banned me because I was messing about. And I was like, ‘Ah, why?’ Because I was getting attention, everyone was laughing at me and I was loving it, I thought, ‘This feels good!’
I have a musical called Goodbye and Good Luck, based on a Grace Paley short story. I also have King Island Christmas, and there are 20 different productions of it this year.
It’s hard and sometimes it’s scary. It still amazes my mother. I went home for Christmas one year and there were fans all over the front lawn, hoping to see me.
I grew up with the classics. My mom and I would sit and watch ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ and ‘White Christmas’ – those kind of movies.
I don’t think of Home Depot as romantic, but I do think the Christmas wonderland they put up during the holidays is magical. That is what Home Depot is to me, and that is the only romantic thing about it.
For it is in giving that we receive.
I’ve taught fifth-year Christmas leavers last thing on a Friday afternoon. Basically, if you can face that you can face anything.
The most classic French dessert around the holidays is the Christmas log, with butter cream. Two flavors. Chocolate and coconut. My first job in the kitchen when I was a boy was to make these Christmas logs.
My mother would give my brothers and me a pile of catalogues and let us pick what we wanted for Christmas.
Christmas is far and away my favorite holiday. I love everything about it, from the event that inspired it, hoping for a white one, to wrapping presents. But mostly I love having family and friends gathered, and sharing traditions.
I’d love to have a Christmas classic under my belt. It’s hard to write a Christmas song.
Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values.
Every Christmas Eve, the elves will come and give us a new pair of pajamas.
Let’s be naughty and save Santa the trip.
One Christmas, when Freddie and I were flatmates in Kensington, we were trying to cook Christmas dinner, but all we had was a packet of bread sauce that you make with water. We used to dream of a can of beans.
He put a ring in the toe of a stocking. On Christmas Eve, we opened our stockings and it was there at the bottom of the toe. Then he got down on his knees and he was shaking.
‘El Gordo’ is the name given to the oldest lottery jackpot in the world – and the richest. Held every year in Madrid on December 22, the Christmas Lottery culminates with the picking of the El Gordo number, the Fat One, which, for many, has become the true Christmas miracle in Spain.
The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.
Well, because I have twin seven-year-old boys, I enjoy the gift giving stuff a great deal. We do both Hanukkah and Christmas, so it is a costly, though extremely pleasing proposition.