By the time we reach this fifth page of Christmas quotations, the season has woven itself into music, memory, and friendship. Some of these words are playful, some reflective, all of them circling the same bright center — the way Christmas pauses our days and fills them with light.

At the top, a wink from W.C. Fields: “A merry Chr ist mas to all my friends exc ept two.” The quotations that follow offer a mix of humor, memory, and spirit — reminders that Christmas touches both the ordinary and the holy places in our lives.

Christmas, weddings, funerals, graduations, retirements, and births are like speed bumps in life; we slow down, look around, think about our lives, and then once over the bump, we speed up to our usual pace. ~ Allen Lagarbo

But let it whistle as it will, we’ll keep our Christmas merry still. ~ Walter Scott

Opened Christmas cards hum to me the hymn of love and teach me the sacrament of correspondence. ~ Edward M. Hays

Christmas has a way of bringing out the best in everyone. ~ Bing Crosby

Remember, if Christ isn’t found in your heart, you won’t find it under the tree. ~ Charlotte Carpenter

As fits the holy Christmas birth, be this, good friends, our carol still: be peace on earth, be peace on earth, to men of gentle will. ~ William M. Thackeray

At Christmas I no more desire a rose than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth; but like of each thing that in season grows. ~ William Shakespeare

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

Best of all, Christmas means a spirit of love, a time when the love of God and the love of our fellow men should prevail over all hatred and bitterness, a time when our thoughts and deeds and the spirit of our lives manifest the presence of God. ~ George F. McDougall

Christmas is a time when everybody wants his past forgotten and his present remembered. ~ Phyllis Diller

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

Christmas Day is the festival of optimism. ~ Helen Keller