christmas, n.Definitions

Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of December to pick a man's pockets.

Christmas is a lovely in part because it is compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.

Christmas is a holiday that persecutes the lonely, the frayed, and the rejected.

Christmas is a rare occasion that reminds of obligations to people one did not choose to be related to. It reminds that love is not just a spontaneous feeling but something one sometimes really has to work at, with people one may not even much like.

Christmas is a grand festival of consumption with a significant segment of American retailing living or dying on profits connected with the yuletide season.

Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.

Christmas is a bridge over the the passing river of time. It is about creating happy hours for tomorrow and reliving those of yesterday.

Christmas is, in today's secular world really a New Year festival, with Santa Claus representing the spirit of the Old Year and the New one hazily identified with the Christ child.