Christmas

Christmas

Christmas (Old English: Crīstesmæsse, meaning "Christ's Mass") is an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ and a widely observed holiday, celebrated generally on December 25 by billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it closes the Advent season and initiates the twelve days of Christmastide. Christmas is a civil holiday in many of the world's nations, is celebrated by an increasing number of non-Christians, and is an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season.

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Famous quotes containing the word christmas:

    He asked if I would sell my Christmas trees;
    My woods the young fir balsams like a place
    Where houses all are churches and have spires.
    I hadn’t thought of them as Christmas trees.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    I saw three ships come sailing by,
    Come sailing by, come sailing by,
    I saw three ships come sailing by,
    On Christmas Day in the morning.
    —Unknown. As I Sat on a Sunny Bank. . .

    Oxford Book of Light Verse, The. W. H. Auden, ed. (1938)

    The eighth day of Christmas,
    My true love sent to me
    Eight maids a-milking,
    —Unknown. The Twelve Days of Christmas (l. 43–45)