My Favorite 15 Christmas Carols

Jingle Bells was written by James Lord Pierpont in 1857, and was originally titled "One Horse Open Sleigh." Jingle Bells was first recorded by the Edison Male Quartette in 1898.

Jingle Bells was the first song broadcast from space, in a Christmas-themed prank by Gemini 6 astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra, December 16, 1965.

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"The Little Drummer Boy" is a popular Christmas song, with words and music by Katherine K. Davis. Henry Onorati and Harry Simeone have been credited with writing the song.

The lyrics tell the apocryphal story of a poor young boy who, unable to afford a gift for the infant Jesus, plays his drum for the newborn.

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The song is written by English hymn writer Isaac Watts, based on Psalm 98 in the Bible. The song was first published in 1719 in Watts' collection; The Psalms of David: Imitated in the language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and worship.

Watts wrote the words of "Joy to the World" as a hymn glorifying Christ's triumphant return at the end of the age, rather than a Christmas song celebrating his first coming as a babe born in a stable. Only the second half of Watts' lyrics are still used today.

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The tune is Welsh dating back to the sixteenth century, and belongs to a winter carol, Nos Galan. In the eighteenth century Mozart used the tune to "Deck the Halls" for a violin and piano duet.

The repeated "fa la la" is from medieval ballads and used in Nos Galan, the remaining lyrics are American in origin dating from the nineteenth century. The "fa-la-la" refrains were probably originally played on the harp.

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"Silent Night, O Holy Night" (German: Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht) is a popular Christmas carol. The original lyrics of the song Stille Nacht were written in German by the Austrian priest Father Josef Mohr and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster Franz Xaver Gruber.

In 1859, John Freeman Young published the English translation that is most frequently sung today.

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"Adeste Fideles" is the name of a Latin hymn tune attributed to John Francis Wade, a British exile living in France after fleeing the Jacobean rebellion.

It was later translated by Frederick Oakeley into English by the name "O Come All Ye Faithful"

Source: Wikipedia

Source: Wikipedia

Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), an Episcopal priest, Rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, was inspired when he was visiting the little town of Bethlehem in 1865. Three years later, he wrote the poem for his church and his organist, Lewis Redner, added the music.

He was inspired by the view of Bethlehem from the hills of Palestine.

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"O Holy Night" ("Cantique de Noël") is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, chrétiens" (Midnight, Christians) by Placide Cappeau (1808-1877), a wine merchant and poet.

John Sullivan Dwight (1813-1893), the editor of Dwight's Journal of Music, translated it into English.

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The word Noel comes from the French word Noël meaning "night". "The First Noel" (sometimes The First Nowell or just Noel) is a traditional English Christmas carol, most likely from the 18th century.

It appeared in Some Ancient Christmas Carols (1823) and Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern (1833), edited by William Sandys.

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Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" was written by Charles Wesley, brother of the Methodist movement founder John Wesley.

He was inspired by the sounds of London church bells while walking to church on Christmas Day. The poem first appeared in Hymns and Sacred Poems in 1739 with the opening line of "Hark, how the welkin (heaven) rings." Wesley's evangelist colleague, George Whitefield, altered it to the familiar opening line over the protests of the author in 1753. Then in 1760 the Reverend Martin Madan substituted lines 7 and 8, to what we know today.

The tune that is normally used for this carol is based on a chorus composed by Felix Mendelssohn. This hymn was regarded as one of the Great Four Anglican Hymns

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Away in a Manger" is a religious Christmas carol first published in 1885 in Philadelphia.

The song was first published with two verses in an Evangelical Lutheran Sunday School collection, Little Children's Book for Schools and Families (1885), edited by James R. Murray (1841-1905), where it simply bore the title "Away in a Manger" and was set to a tune called "St. Kilda," credited to J.E. Clark.

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The carol "While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night" dates back to 1703. The words for While shepherds watched were written by Nahum Tate, who was the Poet Laureate in the reign of Queen Anne, and Nicholas Brady.

Only the Psalms of David were sung in the Anglican Church prior to that time. Tate and Brady were the first to paraphrase the psalms for singing in rhyme which then became distinctive of their work. The familiar melody used for While Shepherds Watched was taken from "Siroe," an opera by George Frederick Handel.

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"What Child Is This" is a popular Christmas carol that was written in 1865. At the age of twenty-nine, writer William Chatterton Dix was struck with a sudden near-fatal illness and confined to bedrest for several months, during which he went into a deep depression. Yet out of his near-death experience, Dix wrote many hymns, including "What Child is This?". It was later set to the traditional English tune "Greensleeves".

Source: Wikipedia

Source: Wikipedia