Let’s talk about this W. T. Ellis Christmas quote, “It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air“.
This popular Christmas quote is widely published and wildly shared just like one big noisy X’mas party.
You can find it in newspapers, magazines, Christmas cards, the Chicken Soup For The Soul: Christmas collection, Reader Digest site, Newsweek.com, quotation websites, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
If you check out this quotation online, you would see they all ascribed it to W. T. ELLIS.
There is a smattering few who credited this Christmas in the heart quote that puts Christmas in the air to William T. Ellis.
Surprisingly, I found two sites which attributed it to William Turner Ellis, and one in GoodReads site, which credited it to Keith Baines.
W. T. Ellis Christmas Quote
There is even a German translation of this quote which reads:
“Erst wenn Weihnachten im Herzen ist, liegt Weihnachten auch in der Luft.”
If I am not mistaken, all the German version attributed it to just William Turner Ellis.
The only prominent person by the name of William Turner Ellis found online was a wealthy merchant from Marysville, California, who also served on Marysville’s Levee Commission for forty years.
NONE of them cited the SOURCE of this quotation.
Probably they were too intoxicated with the fun of quoting and sharing this catchy line.
Now, let’s clear the air with this uncited W. T. Ellis quote.
To begin with, this Christmas quotation is mostly attributed to the person by the name of just W. T. ELLIS.
So, what do these two initials W and T stand for?
If I am not wrong, most people would assume the name W. T. Ellis is William Thomas Ellis, a U.S. Representative from Kentucky, United States.
If you type in “W. T. Ellis” into Google search, immediately Google Autocomplete will show you William Thomas Ellis, a U.S. Representative.
Right off the bat, I knew this politician W. T. Ellis has nothing to do with this Christmas quotation.
Note: There is an error in this Internet Archive page, where it confused with these two person with the same name.
The books featured below were written by another William Thomas Ellis, whom I will highlight below.
Next I came across another William Thomas Ellis who was a remote actor-producer of the 70s western movie “She Came To The Valley“.
The possibility of this W. T. Ellis related to the line “It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air” is even more remote.
Note: You can watch the free movie “She Came To The Valley” at YouTube.
Rev. William Thomas Ellis
Then from the Google search, I found this renowned reverend and writer who is also by the name of William Thomas Ellis.
As I probed deeper, I found out he was a popular syndicated columnist who wrote about religion.
This W. T. Ellis had a short daily column “Religion Day By Day“ which was published in over a hundred newspapers in his days.
William Thomas Ellis is also the author of “Billy Sunday: The Man And His Message“, “Bible Lands To-day“, “As The Shepherds Saw It” and “Men And Missions“.
I had an inkling this must be the W. T. Ellis who uttered or wrote this short Christmas quote.
Here is a biography of W. T. Ellis by his grandson Turk Pierce.
Then I came across this New York Times article which was published in August 16, 1950 on page 29.
It titled “DR. WILLIAM ELLIS, AUTHOR, COLUMNIST; His Articles on Religion Were Published for 50 Years– Correspondent Dies at 76 Was War Correspondent Began Philadelphia Paper“.
So if this Christmas quote exists, it is most probably by this Rev. Dr. William Thomas Ellis.
From there, I sought out help from various newspaper archive sites.
Indeed, his religious articles were found in many publications.
Along the way, I also noticed he published under variant names, which include: W. T. Ellis, William T. Ellis, Dr. William T. Ellis, Wm. T. Ellis and Rev. Wm. T. Ellis.
By the way, he is also known as “The Religious Rambler“.
In fact, this particular William T. Ellis words have been used way back since 1911 in various newspapers.
W. T. Ellis Christmas Quote Source
Now, let’s get to the source of this quote “It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air“.
This line is found in The Charlotte News, November 22, 1911 on page 22.
The title of the article is “Sunday School Lesson—Young Peoples Topic Edited by Wm. T. Ellis“.
Before that popular line, you can see the byline “By William T. Ellis“.
To see the full page of this newspaper, click here and wait for it to show you the full scanned copy.
In conclusion, the W. T. Ellis Christmas quote “It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air” is taken from one of W. T. Ellis‘ articles published in The Charlotte News in 1911.
Related: Here is a free definitive book packed with 400 plus novels, novellas and short stories, poems, carols and songs from over 140 authors.
The Big Book Of Christmas: Novels, Novellas, Stories, Poems & Carols
Click on this: Link
Disclaimer: I do not publish or host any of the books on this site. They are copyrighted to their respective owners. All content cited is derived from their respective sources