Holiday highlights... in passages and pics

It was quite indescribable. It was like what happens when you shake a kaleidoscope. The parts of it are the same parts, but they are arranged differently; they are arranged in a new pattern...
~Agatha Christie "The Water Bus"

 

They err who thinks Santa Claus comes down through the chimney; he really enters through the heart.
~Charles W. Howard

They pressed their noses against the squares of glass in the windows that Pa had made, and they were glad they could see out. But they wished they could see snow.
~Laura Ingalls Wilder, "Mr. Edwards Meets Santa Claus"

 

In the eyes of children we find the joy of Christmas. In their hearts we find its meaning.
~Leland Thomas

 

At Christmas, play and make good cheer, for Christmas comes but once a year.
~Thomas Tusse

 

The best of all gifts around any Christmas Tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.
~Burton Hillis

 

When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest thing — not the great occasions — give off the greatest glow of happiness.
~Bob Hope

 

Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.
~W. Somerset Maugham

There was a good deal of laughing and kissing and explaining, in the simple, loving fashion which makes these home-festivals so pleasant at the time, so sweet to remember long afterward, and then all fell to work.
~Louisa May Alcott, "Christmas at Orchard House"

 

Keep your Christmas-heart open all the year round.
~Jessica Archmint

 

Today's fill-in-the-blank:

Highlights of my holiday included _____________.