I’m betting that right about now, everyone can use some Christmas love quotes. Why? Because if you get caught up in the commercialization of Christmas you might forget what the season is truly about. Here are 12 Christmas love quotes to help us remember that December isn’t just about presents and tasty treats — it’s about the heart.

1. “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all year.” ~ Charles Dickens

2. “Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most.” ~ Ruth Carter Stapleton

3. “Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.” ~ Calvin Coolidge

4. “This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ.” ~ Frank McKibben

5. “Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.” ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

6. “When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?” ~ G.K. Chesterton

7. “Remember, if Christmas isn’t found in your heart, you won’t find it under a tree.” ~ Charlotte Carpenter

8. “It is the personal thoughtfulness, the warm human awareness, the reaching out of the self to one’s fellow man that makes giving worthy of the Christmas spirit.” ~ Isabel Currier

9. “My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?” ~ Bob Hope

10. “The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others’ burdens, easing other’s loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas.” ~ W. C. Jones

11. “I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses.” ~ Taylor Caldwell

12. “Let us keep Christmas beautiful Without a thought of greed, That it might live forevermore To fill our every need, That it shall not be just a day, But last a lifetime through, The miracle of Christmastime That brings God close to you.” ~ Anne Schulz

Let these words remind us of what the Christmas season is truly about. It’s not gifts and parties and pretty lights. These Christmas love quotes remind us that the Christmas season is, at its core, about love.