Christmas comes but once a year

Reportedly coined by Thomas Tusser (1524–1580):

At Christmas play and make good cheer,

For Christmas comes but once a year.

—"The Farmer's Daily Diet", A Hundred Points of Good Husbandry (1557)

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.
   • 1854, Charles Dickens, The Seven Poor Travellers, ch. 1:

     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," Telegraph (UK) (retrieved 9 Jan 2018):

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