No holiday tradition is as sacred, as pure or as easy to uphold as the annual viewing of a favorite Christmas movie or TV show -- and the lines that help make them memorable.

James Monday's favorite comes at the end of Dr. Seuss' animated classic, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" (1966), when the Whos celebrate despite the Grinch's dastardly deeds.

"... Christmas Day is in our grasp as long as we have hands to clasp. Christmas Day will always be, just as long as we have we."

"That line at the end, with Boris Karloff narrating, always chokes me up," says Mr. Monday, 46, of Waynesville, N.C. "I'm your classic baby boomer who grew up with that stuff."

The animated special reminds him of his youth -- before videos, DVDs and DVRs -- when people had to wait all year to see the show and sit and watch it the one time it aired.

"In my family, we'd gather around the TV, and it was like a big event," Mr. Monday says. "It used to be real special."

Mr. Monday was among many readers who shared their favorite lines with us from their must-see holiday movies, TV shows and animated specials.

They run the gamut of holiday cinema and television fare -- from "It's a Wonderful Life" to "Seinfeld." Some are poignant. Most are funny. All strike a chord that has made them as much a part of the season as holiday cookies, lights and celebrations.

Linda Vietmeier likes "It's cold enough to freeze your Winnebago," the snowman's line from "The Muppet Family Christmas" (1987).

"The whole movie is just loaded with lines that adults get, but the kids just like the characters," says Ms. Vietmeier, 47, of Whitehall.

Alice Dinkins' favorite line is "Get off our porch before I call the dog," from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965).

Charlie Brown's sister, Sally, says it to the neighbor who comes to retrieve a Christmas tree that she had taken from his yard.

"It's just the way she said it and the way she was protecting the tree," says Ms. Dinkins, 50, of Friendship. She has watched the holiday special since she was in grade school.

Linda Ligas' favorite is a song rather than a single line. For at least 40 years, she and her younger sister, Donna Abel, have sung the song "Sisters" -- "Sisters. Sisters. There were never such devoted Sisters ..." -- from "White Christmas" (1954). She once even ordered the sheet music for it.

"We just started singing it, and it became a lot of fun for us and a yearly thing, and we do sing it every time we're together and sometimes on the phone," says Ms. Ligas, 52, a Castle Shannon native now living in North Plainfield, N.J. "It's just our thing."

Her sister's favorite line comes from Rudolph in "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1964), when he tells Hermey the Elf he wants to be "In-de-pen-dent."

"Just the way he says it, it cracks me up," says Ms. Abel, 49, of Clay, W.Va. "It's just a hoot."

She also likes when Rudolph says, "Ready, Santa!"

"We use [that one] all year long when going out to the car," she says. "It's tickled us for 40 years."

Shona Stewart's favorite holiday line comes from the "Seinfeld" Festivus episode, "The Strike" (1997). George Costanza's father, Frank, celebrates Festivus -- a holiday alternative to the commercialization of Christmas -- on Dec. 23.

At a Festivus dinner, when Kramer connects Elaine with two bookies who had been looking for her (but whom she had been trying to avoid), he exclaims, "It's a Festivus miracle!"

"It's so funny," says Ms. Stewart, 30, of Friendship. "It's a funny and ridiculous holiday and a funny and ridiculous line."

Chris Szymarek's favorite line from what she calls "the greatest Christmas movie ever" is "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear," from "Elf" (2003).

"When the hustle and bustle of the holiday season gets one in a 'Bah Humbuggish' mood, this movie and Will Ferrell screaming this line can get a chuckle out of anyone," says Ms. Szymarek, 36, of White Oak. "I even go into stores and say this line out loud. Yeah, people look at me, but, hey, I am just spreading that Christmas cheer!"

Marie Kickler's favorite line comes from "A Charlie Brown Christmas," when Charlie Brown says, "This little green one here seems to need a home."

"I don't know why, it just touched that little part of me inside that went, 'awwww,'" says Ms. Kickler, 63, of Squirrel Hill. She has watched the special for more than 40 years. "I'm the rescuer of puppies and kittens, and it just touched that part inside of me that said, 'I'll take you home.'"

Chuck Kacik has watched "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" (1962) since he was 5 years old. His favorite line is, "It's good to be back, Back, BACK ON BROADWAY!"

"When I watch this every year, the words make me feel like it's good to be back, Back, BACK watching this terrific musical film yet again," says Mr. Kacik, 50, of Monessen.

Pittsburgh-area folks definitely have an affinity for that "Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle" 'round-the-clock Christmas Eve and Christmas Day classic, "A Christmas Story" (1983), and the wacky National Lampoon's "Christmas Vacation" (1989).

Ralphie's "Oooh, fuuudge!" from "A Christmas Story" is Jay Conley's favorite line. Here's a fuller scene synopsis.

Ralphie: Oooh fuuudge!

Ralphie as adult: [narrating] Only I didn't say, "Fudge." I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the "F-dash-dash-dash" word!

Mr. Parker: [stunned] What did you say?

Ralphie: Uh, um ...

Mr. Parker: That's ... what I thought you said. Get in the car. Go on!

"It's just so counter Christmas," says Mr. Conley, 72, of Oakland. "It's a funny line. If you take it seriously, you'll be offended, but if you take it lightly, it's humorous.

"It's an honest mistake a little boy makes. ... Shows the boy's humanness under a situation of great stress under his father's supervision."

Jeff Cima's favorite line, also from "A Christmas Story," is "Fra-gee-lay. That must be Italian," which Ralphie's father utters when he receives the "Major Award" fishnet stocking leg lamp in a wood crate and mistakes the word "fragile" on the crate for the more exotic sounding "fra-gee-lay."

"It's hilarious," says Mr. Cima, 38, of Monroeville. He has watched the film for more than a decade and in recent years has watched it two to four times a year. "There's a store in Monroeville Mall that sells that lamp, a nice conversation piece."

Amy Drauch's favorite line comes during one of Clark Griswold's ranting meltdowns in "Christmas Vacation."

"... We're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny [bleeping] Kaye."

The line, a reference to the film "White Christmas," always puts a smile on her face.

"It's just one of these things that's just silly to me and very funny," says Ms. Drauch, 28, of Carnegie. "It's a modern classic."

Vin Morabito's favorite line comes in another tirade "Christmas Vacation's" Clark Griswold goes on after receiving a "Jelly of the Month Club" coupon as a Christmas bonus from his boss.

"After a looney litany of off-color put-downs in front of his speechless family, Clark, practically out of breath, manages to get in a cry for help: 'Hallelujah! Holy [bleep]! Where's the Tylenol?'" says Mr. Morabito, 48, a former McKeesport and Plum resident who now lives in Scranton. "We just crack up, my wife and myself, every time we see it. It's even funnier if you put it on with the closed captions and see the words he's saying. It's just a riot. Absolutely the funniest holiday movie there is."

Of course, no story about favorite holiday show lines would be complete without the usual suspects.

Several readers offered up "You'll shoot your eye out," from "A Christmas Story," as their favorite.

"It's just so funny," says Stephanie Harris, 42, of Upper St. Clair. "The fact that they repeat it throughout the movie also is what makes it funny."

Ralphie's mother, teacher and even Santa warn him of the dangers of the "Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle."

"When Santa says it, that's my favorite," says Wendy Hartz, 36, of Aspinwall. "He just says it so plainly to Ralphie. It was hilarious, especially when he shoved the boot in the kid's face and shoved him down the slide, screaming."

And last, but certainly not least, Zuzu's line, "... Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings," from "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) is Kelly McCormick's favorite.

"It's such a hopeful line, and every time I do hear a bell ring I think that," says Ms. McCormick, 47, of Clairton.

She has seen the film countless times since childhood and even wrote a paper for a college literature class about how the film is a timeless classic.

"I just said it makes you believe that there is a God and that a single person can change your life."