Christmas comes but once a year

English

Etymology

Apparently coined by the English poet Thomas Tusser (c. 1524 – 1580): see the 1580 quotation.

Proverb

Christmas comes but once a year

1. Used to emphasize the annual distinctiveness of Christmas, especially in contexts where either the special joys or tribulations of the holiday are described.
   • 1580, Thomas Tusser, “The Fermers Dailie Diet”, in Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie: […], London: […] Henrie Denham [beeing the assigne of William Seres] […], →OCLC; republished as W[illiam] Payne and Sidney J[ohn Hervon] Herrtage, editors, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], 1878, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 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).

   • 1623, M. N. [pseudonym; William Camden], “Certaine Prouerbes, Poemes or Poesies, Epigrammes, Rhythmes, and Epitaphs of the English Nation in Former Times, and Some of This Present Age”, in Remaines, Concerning Britaine: […], 3rd edition, London: […] Nicholas Okes, for Simon Waterson, […], →OCLC, page 267:

     Chriſtmaſſe commeth but once a yeere.

   • 1854, Charles Dickens, “The Seven Poor Travellers. Chapter I. In the Old City of Rochester.”, in Christmas Stories […] (The Works of Charles Dickens; XV), de luxe edition, London: Chapman and Hall, published 1881, →OCLC, page 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; […]

   • 1901, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “A Christmas Mistake”, in Short Stories: 1896—1901:

     "Christmas comes but once a year, / And then Mother wishes it wasn't here."

   • 2006 December 9, Lila Das Gupta, “Christmas gifts”, in The Daily Telegraph‎^[1], London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     Christmas comes but once a year, which is just as well—shopping during the festive season can be no fun at all.

     (Can we archive this URL?)