CHRISTMAS QUOTEDOWN (25)

Christmas began in the heart of God.

It is complete only when it reaches the heart of man.

——Vance Havner

Because the beginning 

shall remind us of the end,

And the first Coming 

of the second 

——T.S. Eliot    

The search for Christmas begins, not on the day of the Nativity, but in the prophecies of Old Testament Scripture, and it continues through the birth of Jesus and the anticipation of his second coming.

——From the introduction, 

In Search of Christmas

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I've collected Christmas books for years, and must have at least a couple hundred. Their contents range from anthologies of seasonal poetry, short stories, and novels, to histories of the holiday and its customs and traditions, sketches and narratives of remembered Christmases by various writers, cookbooks, even a craft book or two, though Myladylove collects the latter two categories and probably has upwards of a hundred Christmas volumes of her own.

This year, starting on the first day of December, I thought it might be fun to dip into a few of these works and share a quote or two from their pages—a few lines of poetry, a bit of prose, maybe even a recipe—on a daily basis, a sort of "Christmas Quotedown," which I'll put up in addition to my regular posts. I'll also include a photo of the book's cover, from which the day's quotes are taken—though a few, lacking a dust jacket or any sort of fancy cover design, might be decidedly non-photogenic. On the other hand, several of my favorite Christmas works are quotably rich troves, indeed, and thus might end up furnishing more than a day's worth of quotes—though I'm starting out with the notion of a different book each day.

Along the way, I hope I select some things you enjoy.      

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