Daily Inspiration

I love the royal family. I even got up in the middle of the night to watch Kate and William's wedding. And I never miss the Queen's speech on Christmas Day. I feel it's my duty as an English-born woman to watch.

You can separate the church and state all you like, but Christmas is inescapable, and it's marvellous, and it's not going away.

My favourite time of year is two weeks before Christmas when everybody's up for it - you're having lunches with people, drinking Cosmopolitans, and getting ready for something exciting!

From the time the kids were in upper grade school and middle school, we took trips over the Christmas break to nature-focused places, such as the Okefenokee Swamp and Cumberland Island in Georgia; Costa Rica; Maho Bay campground in St. John, Virgin Islands; the llanos of Venezuela; the southern coast and highlands of Belize.

When you travel on Christmas, for you as the traveler - whether you're in 1A or 39D - there is a mental state that you have to put yourself in: that you're traveling at the busiest time of the year, and you're going to take whatever comes your way.

I spent pretty much all my wages from 'No Country For Old Men' on a pair of cowboy boots. They're ridiculous. It's like wearing two Christmas trees on my legs.

When I was young, we always went to our posh cousins at Christmas. My dad made sure we had new shoes and clean clothes - he was really proud - and that's why I felt different from everyone living around me. We had the first television on the estate, the first fridge.

We used to listen to Lionel Barrymore do 'A Christmas Carol' on the radio long ago, and I like Reginald Owen, who played Scrooge in the first treatment for the screen. But my favorite Scrooge was Alastair Sim. He was enchanting, an absolutely beautiful performance.

I grew up in Morocco. I was born a Muslim, and, every year, I celebrated Christmas in a big white house in the country, halfway between Meknes and Fez.

I kind of have a uniform for office parties and Christmas parties. What I do is put on a basic tuxedo shirt with a solid navy or black tie, a tweed jacket, a red pocket square, and some sort of fancy shoe or velvet slipper.

What I love about Christmas music is it stays around every year and comes back.

My son was 8 or 9, and he really wanted a gun. It was Christmas, and I said to my husband, 'It's time for a gun.'

Christmas is never going to go away, and it's always going to be there. And there's always room for one more Christmas song, I think.

There I am, watching Philip Seymour Hoffman, one of my favourite actors in the world, walk into the room dressed up as Father Christmas, being hilarious, and I'm suddenly thinking, 'Where am I?'

Amy Poehler and I once ambushed people and made them sing Christmas carols with us.

One Christmas, Dennis Dermody, the movie critic of 'Paper,' gave me 'Rock Hudson: A Gathering of Friends,' the master invitation list from Rock Hudson's memorial service. It's so great. Everyone's in it, with personal addresses all bound into a book. Someone else once gave me Ike Turner's will. I get great stuff.

Growing up, my earliest memories are listening to Sinatra Christmas albums.

When I was a kid, I really wanted a metal detector for Christmas, convinced I was going to find buried treasure and could retire at 12. Santa Claus brought me one, but sadly, that treasure was never realized. It's amazing how many bottle caps you have to dig up. But to be honest, that dream is still alive.

When I first heard 'A Christmas Story, the musical,' I thought, Oh, that could be really good. It just felt like it fit. Some films lend themselves well to other formats, some don't, but there are so many fantasy sequences in the film, and Ralphie's such a dreamer as a character, I thought they could really lend themselves to being set pieces.

When I was a kid and Christmas was coming up, my dad would ask me what I wanted, and I always said a motorbike. I kept asking for one, and he said it was too dangerous and bought me a go-kart instead.

No matter how excluded you have become from Christmas, it is a genuinely inclusive matter; frankly, you are conscripted into it.

My parents made a great sacrifice to make sure that we had something wonderful at Christmas, and through the help of the state and others, we were able to have a good meal.

I have always wanted to do a Christmas album and covers.

Traditions are always puzzling to those who don't share them. I'm Jewish, so the idea of a 'perfect family Christmas' is foreign to me.

As much as I liked the build-up to Christmas, the week after always socked me with the blues.

One thing I've always loved and rated me dad for is that, because of him, I've never seen the Queen's Christmas speech.

I was practically raised with Christmas music.

Like with me, like around '97, for Christmas my parents bought me an MPC 2000 sampler and a little eight-track cassette recorder. And I started sampling records and, you know, producing hip-hop beats. And it got to the point where I realized - I innately realized that the music I liked the most was made by people that played instruments.

I've always loved watches. It's been the one thing that I've asked for, whether it was every Christmas or a birthday.

Fans talk to me about how 'Country Christmas' has become a holiday tradition for them and that they all watch to start their holiday season. To be a part of people's holiday traditions is a real joy.

One of the secrets of 'A Christmas Story' is that it's a relatable story. They feel like our family.

The theme of 'A Christmas Story' is that you can count on Christmas - that everybody has a Christmas story. Everybody has that time in the holiday season that they remember.

As a child, I saw my mother prepare for Christmas every year, and it never occurred to me that labor was involved. I thought it was my mother's joy and privilege to hang tinsel on the tree strand by strand, to make sure that every room in the house had a touch of Christmas, down to the Santa-themed rug and hand towels in the bathroom.

I came out to my dad in Christmas of '94.

When we made 'Life in a Day,' we asked people around the globe to record their lives on a single ordinary day. When we were cutting that film, we talked about what it might be like if we chose a day that already had significance to people. The result is 'Christmas in a Day.'

Christmas is the biggest holiday in numbers - in terms of gross amounts - because you have one and a half to two months.

The coolest Christmas present I've ever received is probably socks. My grandma always gets me socks - every year - and that's something that I've probably never bought for myself. If Christmas wasn't around and my grandma didn't get me socks, I wouldn't own any, probably.

I'm the youngest of three boys, and my oldest brother was super into Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton and played guitar. I wanted to be like him, so I asked for a guitar of my own for Christmas in '93.

I love that Christmas lasts for so long. And I love that everybody still believes that magic is going to happen. It's a chance to be reminded that being with people is the most important thing.

Christmas sits like a black hole on the calendar. Just try scheduling a meeting at work the month of December.

I know CEOs, and they get sick when they have to lay people off, especially around Christmas.

I once did a gig at an office Christmas party in the showroom floor of a friend's father's home appliance shop in the suburbs of Melbourne. It was to a much older crowd. Without a microphone. Or a stage. With the queue for the buffet behind me.

When I was a child, I always went to my grandmother's house in Nuremberg for Christmas. My uncle would leave the room, saying he needed the toilet, and then he would reappear dressed as Santa Claus. I was really scared - I'd have to go and hide behind an armchair.

I think Christmas, for me, has always been about family, as cliche as that sounds.

I actually feel sorry for people who have nothing to do on Christmas Day other than watch an NBA game.

The window in which it's acceptable to listen to Ella Fitzgerald's 1960 record 'Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas' is short, so I keep it in heavy rotation throughout the festive season.

I train every day but Christmas. I'm not the guy who gets a contract signed and then trains for a fight. I'm at practice every single day, whether I've got a match or not.

If I had a modelling job and then it became a poster, it meant that my kids and I could have turkey for Christmas dinner. Otherwise, we had chicken.

The Christmas tree goes up on December 1. I love it.

There were very few British black women on TV or in music when I was a teenager; when you're growing up, you need someone you can identify with. I remember at Christmas being bought a doll that didn't look anything like me, so I threw it away.