Quick answer: C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), the British writer of The Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity, wrote often about Christmas, from the meaning of the Nativity to the stress of Christmas shopping. Below are 10 of his best-known Christmas lines, each with the book or essay it comes from. One line that is often shared as his, “Darkness must pass”, is not by Lewis at all; we explain where it really comes from.
Who was C. S. Lewis?
Clive Staples Lewis was a scholar of English literature at Oxford and later Cambridge, and one of the best-known Christian writers of the 20th century. He is remembered for the seven Narnia books for children, for Mere Christianity, which grew out of his wartime radio talks on the BBC, and for essays and poems on faith. Many of his Christmas thoughts were written as short essays and newspaper pieces, later collected in books edited after his death.
10 Christmas quotes from C. S. Lewis
1. On looking for Christ
“Look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”
Source: Mere Christianity (1952), Book IV, the chapter “The New Men”. It ends a longer sentence that begins “Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred…”. An earlier version of this page cut the line short; the full sentence ends “everything else thrown in”.
2. The Nativity, among the oxen
“Among the oxen (like an ox I’m slow) / I see a glory in the stable grow…”
Source: Lewis’s short poem “The Nativity”, published in Poems (1964). In the poem he compares himself with the animals in the stable and asks for the ox’s strength.
3. The Nativity, among the asses
“Among the asses (stubborn I as they) / I see my Saviour where I looked for hay…”
Source: the second verse of the same poem, in which he asks to learn at least “the patience of a beast”.
4. The Nativity, among the sheep
“Among the sheep (I like a sheep have strayed) / I watch the manger where my Lord is laid…”
Source: the third and last verse, which ends with a wish for “some woolly innocence”. Earlier versions of this page printed all three verses in full; we now quote the opening lines of each, and the poem can be read in full in Poems.
5. On a family meal
“The sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal.”
Source: the essay “Membership” (1945), collected in The Weight of Glory. It is not about Christmas as such, but it is often shared at Christmas because of the family table.
6. A stable bigger than the world
“In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”
Source: The Last Battle (1956), the last Narnia book, Chapter 13, spoken by Lucy. An earlier version of this page gave a shortened wording; this is the line as it appears in the book.
7. Exmas and Crissmas
“But what Hecataeus says, that Exmas and Crissmas are the same, is not credible.”
Source: “Xmas and Christmas: A Lost Chapter from Herodotus” (1954), collected in God in the Dock. In this satire, Lewis describes an island called Niatirb (“Britain” backwards) where two festivals fall on the same day: commercial “Exmas” and religious “Crissmas”. The next sentence notes that the pictures on the Exmas cards “have nothing to do with the sacred story”. An earlier version of this page ran these two ideas together into a line Lewis did not write.
8. Always winter and never Christmas
“Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!” “How awful!” said Lucy.
Source: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950), Chapter 2. Mr Tumnus is describing Narnia under the White Witch’s spell.
9. On Christmas shopping
“Can it really be my duty to buy and receive masses of junk every winter just to help the shopkeepers?”
Source: widely quoted from Lewis’s short piece “What Christmas Means to Me” (1957), collected in God in the Dock. In it he separates the religious feast, which he welcomed, from the commercial rush, which he disliked.
10. Why Christmas happened
“The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.”
Source: Mere Christianity (1952), Book IV. It is one of Lewis’s most quoted summaries of the meaning of the Incarnation.
A quote that is not by C. S. Lewis
Earlier versions of this page included “Darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer”, credited to “The Lord of the Rings” as if it were Lewis’s. It is not by Lewis. The Lord of the Rings was written by his friend J. R. R. Tolkien, and this exact line comes from Sam’s speech in the 2002 film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson. In the film it begins “Even darkness must pass”. We have removed it from the list.
How to use these quotes
- Give the source. When you use a line in a card or post, name the book or essay. It helps readers find the original and stops misquotes spreading.
- Check the wording. Many Lewis lines circulate in shortened or altered forms. If the wording matters, check a printed edition.
- Mind the context. Several lines (such as the “Exmas” one) are satire, and make most sense with the essay around them.
For more seasonal lines, see our collection of quotes celebrating the spirit of Christmas and, for work greetings, our Christmas phrases for clients.
Frequently asked questions
Did C. S. Lewis write about Christmas?
Yes. Besides the Christmas scenes in the Narnia books, he wrote the poem “The Nativity”, the satirical essay “Xmas and Christmas: A Lost Chapter from Herodotus” (1954) and the short piece “What Christmas Means to Me” (1957).
Where does “Always winter and never Christmas” come from?
From The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950), Chapter 2, where Mr Tumnus tells Lucy about the White Witch’s rule over Narnia.
Did C. S. Lewis write “Darkness must pass”?
No. The line comes from Sam’s speech in the 2002 film The Two Towers, based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s book; it is not in Lewis’s writing.
Are C. S. Lewis’s books still under copyright?
That depends on the country. Lewis died in 1963, so the copyright term differs from place to place. Short quotations with credit are commonly used, but reproducing long passages or whole poems may need permission from the rights holder.
Quotes checked in October 2026 against Wikiquote’s sourced C. S. Lewis entries, published texts of the Narnia books and “Xmas and Christmas”, and the credits of the 2002 film The Two Towers.
