Latin: December. From the word decem, ten (it was the 10th month in the old Roman calendar). The Latin name is derived from Decima, the middle Goddess of the Three Fates who personifies the present.
• “At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth;
But like of each thing that in season grows.”
• William Shakespeare
• “I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• “Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man
the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!”
• Charles Dickens
• “Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat.
Please put a penny in the old man's hat.
If you haven't got a penny, a half penny will do.
If you haven't got a half penny, then God bless you.”
• Traditional English Christmas rhyme
• “Each Christmas I remember
The ones of long ago;
I see our mantelpiece adorned
With stockings in a row.
Each Christmas finds me dreaming
Of days that used to be,
When we hid presents here and there,
For all the family.
Each Christmas I remember
The fragrance in the air,
Of roasting turkey and mince pies
And cookies everywhere.
Each Christmas finds me longing
For Christmases now past,
And I am back in childhood
As long as memories last.”
• Carice Williams, Christmas Past
• “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly, I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Leonore
For the rare and radiant maiden who the angels name Lenore
Nameless here for evermore.”
• The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849
January • February • March • April • May • June • July • August • September • October • November • December
January • February • March • April • May • June • July • August • September • October • November • December