Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated) Quotes

“We write these words now, many miles distant from the spot at which, year after year, we met on that day, a merry and joyous circle. Many of the hearts that throbbed so gaily then, have ceased to beat; many of the looks that shone so brightly then, have ceased to glow; the hands we grasped, have grown cold; the eyes we sought, have hid their lustre in the grave; and yet the old house, the room, the merry voices and smiling faces, the jest, the laugh, the most minute and trivial circumstances connected with those happy meetings, crowd upon our mind at each recurrence of the season, as if the last assemblage had been but yesterday! Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fireside and his quiet home!”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“He had heard the children’s talk, and his heart was very heavy as he looked about the shabby room that used to be so neat and pleasant. What he thought, no one knows; what he did we shall see by-and-by. But the sorrow and shame and tender silence of his children worked a miracle that night more lasting and lovely than the white beauty which the snow wrought upon the sleeping city.”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“He saw that men who worked hard, and earned their scanty bread with lives of labour, were cheerful and happy; and that to the most ignorant, the sweet face of Nature was a never-failing source of cheerfulness and joy. He saw those who had been delicately nurtured, and tenderly brought up, cheerful under privations, and superior to suffering, that would have crushed many of a rougher grain, because they bore within their own bosoms the materials of happiness, contentment, and peace. He saw that women, the tenderest and most fragile of all God’s creatures, were the oftenest superior to sorrow, adversity, and distress; and he saw that it was because they bore, in their own hearts, an inexhaustible well-spring of affection and devotion. Above all, he saw that men like himself, who snarled at the mirth and cheerfulness of others,”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“Why have I made up such a story, so out of keeping with an ordinary diary, and a writer’s above all? And I promised two stories dealing with real events! But that is just it, I keep fancying that all this may have happened really — that is, what took place in the cellar and on the woodstack; but as for Christ’s Christmas tree, I cannot tell you whether that could have happened or not.”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“We soon settled it by all hands going, and buckled down to the work of getting ready. Sleds were strengthened, harnesses and moccasins made and repaired, and every dog and every pound of dog-food to be obtained for love or money skirmished from White and Indian. So bust were we, that when we pulled out the following morning, we left a notice for the first comer to bury the man on the roof. And so the Madness grew; for when one fails to bury the dead at his door, he is indeed ready to be destroyed.”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“Stowing the body on the roof of the cabin so that the dogs could not get at it, we entered and held a council of war. The sailors emptied the; two fifty-pound sacks of nuggets on the table, and from this moment the Madness began to grow. Even Lucy, for all her impassive Indian nature, was so fascinated by the glittering heap that she could hardly cook dinner. After a few minutes of talk and conjecture, Innuit Kid returned with the information that the strangers had turned into the Stuart River. Confusion prevailed. Even the woman understood its import.”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“THE REMINDER I While I watch the Christmas blaze
Paint the room with ruddy rays,
Something makes my vision glide
To the frosty scene outside. There, to reach a rotting berry,
Toils a thrush, — constrained to very
Dregs of food by sharp distress,
Taking such with thankfulness. Why, O starving bird, when I
One day’s joy would justify,
And put misery out of view,
Do you make me notice you!”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“The magi, as you know, were wise men — wonderfully wise men — who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“Christmas Days at sea are of varied character, fair to middling and down to plainly atrocious. In this statement I do not include Christmas Days on board passenger ships. A passenger is, of course, a brother (or sister), and quite a nice person in a way, but his Christmas Days are, I suppose, what he wants them to be: the conventional festivities of an expensive hotel included in the price of his ticket.”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“In all my twenty years of wandering over the restless waters of the globe I can only remember one Christmas Day celebrated by a present given and received. It was, in my view, a proper live-sea transaction, no offering of Dead Sea fruit; and in its unexpectedness perhaps worth recording. Let me tell you first that it happened in the year 1879, long before there was any thought of wireless message, and when an inspired person trying to prophesy broadcasting would have been regarded as a particularly offensive nuisance and probably sent to a rest-cure home. We used to call them madhouses then, in our rude, cave-man way.”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“Theologically Christmas Day is the greatest occasion for rejoicing offered to sinful mankind; but this aspect of it is so august and so great that the human mind refuses to contemplate it steadily, perhaps because of its own littleness, for which of course it is in no way to blame. It prefers to concentrate its attention on ceremonial observances, expressive generally of good will and festivity, such, for instance, as giving presents and eating plum-puddings. It may be said at once here that from that conventional point of view the spirit of Christmas Day at sea appears distinctly weak. The opportunities, the materials too, are lacking. Of course, the ship’s company get a plum-pudding of some sort, and when the captain appears on deck for the first time the officer of the morning watch greets him with a “Merry Christmas, sir,” in a tone only moderately effusive. Anything more would be, owing to the difference in station, not correct. Normally he may expect a return for this in the shape of a “The same to you” of a nicely graduated heartiness. He does not get it always, however.”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“Well! I’ve ended my tale; I hope you don’t think it too long; but, before I go, just let me say one thing. If any of you have any quarrels, or misunderstandings, or coolnesses, or cold shoulders, or shynesses, or tiffs, or miffs, or huffs, with any one else, just make friends before Christmas, -- you will be so much merrier if you do. I ask it of you for the sake of that old angelic song, heard so many years ago by the shepherds, keeping watch by night, on Bethlehem Heights.”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“And after dinner, Mrs Jenkins would have baby on her knee; and he seemed quite to take to her; she declared he was admiring the real lace on her cap, but Mary thought (though she did not say so) that he was pleased by her kind looks and coaxing words. Then he was wrapped up and carried carefully upstairs to tea, in Mrs Jenkins’s room. And after tea, Mrs Jenkins, and Mary, and her husband, found out each other’s mutual liking for music, and sat singing old glees and catches, till I don’t know what o’clock, without one word of politics or newspapers”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“The following two chapters are taken from Dickens’ first novel The Pickwick Papers, concerning the Pickwickians famous visit to Dingley Dell to celebrate Christmas with their friend Mr. Wardle and to attend his daughter’s wedding. The second chapter includes the seasonal story Mr. Wardle tells the company on Christmas Eve. The tale of Gabriel Grub and the goblins is a clear precursor of Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, which would be published several years later.”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“Do go, my dear friend — I don’t mean to ask her to marry, but to ask her to dance. — Never mind the looks of the thing. It will make her happy; and what does it cost you? Ah, my dear fellow! take this counsel: always dance with the old ladies — always dance with the governesses. It is a comfort to the poor things when they get up in their garret that somebody has had mercy on them. And such a handsome fellow as YOU too!”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“Meanwhile direct your attention to the three gentlemen at the door: they are conversing. 1st Gent. — Who’s the man of the house — the bald man? 2nd Gent. — Of course. The man of the house is always bald. He’s a stockbroker, I believe. Snooks brought me. 1st Gent. — Have you been to the tea-room? There’s a pretty girl in the tea-room; blue eyes, pink ribbons, that kind of thing. 2nd Gent. — Who the deuce is that girl with those tremendous shoulders? Gad! I do wish somebody would smack ‘em. 3rd Gent. — Sir — that young lady is my niece, sir, — my niece — my name is Blades, sir. 2nd Gent. — Well, Blades! smack your niece’s shoulders: she deserves it, begad! she does. Come in, Jinks, present me to the Perkinses. — Hullo! here’s an old country acquaintance — Lady Bacon, as I live! with all the piglings; she never goes out without the whole litter. (Exeunt 1st and 2nd Gents.)”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“Mr. Perkins’s sister is married to a baronet, Sir Giles Bacon, of Hogwash, Norfolk.”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“I don’t know even the Mulligan’s town residence. One night, as he bade us adieu in Oxford Street, — ”I live THERE,” says he, pointing down towards Oxbridge, with the big stick he carries — so his abode is in that direction at any rate. He has his letters addressed to several of his friends’ houses, and his parcels, &c. are left for him at various taverns which he frequents. That pair of checked trousers, in which you see him attired, he did me the favor of ordering from my own tailor, who is quite as anxious as anybody to know the address of the wearer. In like manner my hatter asked me, “Oo was the Hirish gent as ‘ad ordered four ‘ats and a sable boar to be sent to my lodgings?”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“In the Victorian times there was much demand for Christmas books, which would make an ideal gift, as well provide amusing entertainment over the holiday period. Without a doubt the most famous of these is Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, published in 1843, but he was by no means the only popular writer of such books. Published in 1847, Thackeray’s first Christmas book, Mrs Perkins’s Ball, is a humorous portrait of a seasonal social gathering, with a broad panorama of guests, from the hilarious sot Mulligan to the prissy middle-class characters he upsets. However, it is Thackeray’s ability as an illustrator that is the most impressive in this novella.”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“THE HEAVENLY CHRISTMAS TREE I am a novelist, and I suppose I have made up this story. I write “I suppose,” though I know for a fact that I have made it up, but yet I keep fancying that it must have happened somewhere at some time, that it must have happened on Christmas Eve in some great town in a time of terrible frost.”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“Encircled by the social thoughts of Christmas-time, still let the benignant figure of my childhood stand unchanged! In every cheerful image and suggestion that the season brings, may the bright star that rested above the poor roof, be the star of all the Christian World! A moment’s pause, O vanishing tree, of which the lower boughs are dark to me as yet, and let me look once more! I know there are blank spaces on thy branches, where eyes that I have loved have shone and smiled; from which they are departed. But, far above, I see the raiser of the dead girl, and the Widow’s Son; and God is good! If Age be hiding for me in the unseen portion of thy downward growth, O may I, with a grey head, turn a child’s heart to that figure yet, and a child’s trustfulness and confidence!”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)

“CHRISTMAS TREE by Charles Dickens After the publication of The Haunted Man (1848), the last of Dickens’ Christmas novellas, he marked the holidays with short stories that were seasonal in spirit, beginning with this short story in 1850. It is a beautiful meditation on the power of the imagination and the potency of nostalgia when reflecting on the past.”
― Charles Dickens, Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated)