Christmas comes but once a year

English Etymology Apparently en Thomas Tusser the English poet 1 1 (1524 1 – 1580): see the 1580 quotation. Proverb proverb ~come[s] Used to emphasize the annual distinctiveness of Christmas, especially in contexts where either the special joys or tribulations of the holiday are described. 1878 The Fermers Dailie Diet 5 28 At Christmas play and make good cheere, / For Christmas comes but once a yeere. The term does not appear in the 1st edition of the work (1557). 3rd Certaine Prouerbes, Poemes or Poesies, Epigrammes, Rhythmes, and Epitaphs of the English Nation in Former Times, and Some of This Present Age 267 Chriſtmaſſe commeth but once a yeere. XV I In the Old City of Rochester 5 I urged to the good lady that this was Christmas-eve; that Christmas comes but once a year,—which is unhappily too true, for when it begins to stay with us the whole year round we shall make this earth a very different place; en 1901 w:Lucy Maud Montgomery A Christmas Mistake Short Stories: 1896—1901 "Christmas comes but once a year, / And then Mother wishes it wasn't here." Lila Das Gupta Christmas gifts http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/3339643/Christmas-gifts.html 9 December 2006 Christmas comes but once a year, which is just as well—shopping during the festive season can be no fun at all. https://web.archive.org/web/20250810215333/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/3339643/Christmas-gifts.html 10 August 2025 See also en you only go around once en carpe diem en Christmas