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Beat Christmas Carols
It is impossible to select the “best” Christmas carols! Our favorites are many, ranging from traditional carols to modern day carols, from classics to popular hits. The best Christmas carol book from which to play and sing Christmas songs is The Reader’s Digest Merry Christmas Songbook with 110 songs and instrumentals with chords for guitar. This outstanding collection of sheet music in a spiral bound book is available at Amazon.com. New, it is an expensive book, but the good news is, that Amazon.com has several used books at a very reasonable price! So be sure to check it out. If you love singing and/or playing you’ll want to have this book for your collection.
You’ll find traditional carols: “Angels We Have Heard on High”, “O Come All Ye Faithful”, “Silent Night”(first performed in German on December 24, 1818 at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria; Fr. Josef Mohr wrote the lyrics a few years before this and asked musician, Franz Gruber, to compose a melody so it could be sung at the 1818 Christmas Eve Mass)…; modern day carols: “Little Drummer Boy” (first known as "The Carol of the Drum" written by Katerine Davis in 1941; the song became famous after Harry Simeone renamed it "The Little Drummer Boy" and recorded it in 1958), “Carol of the Bells”, “O Holy Night” ( originally a poem) …; popular Christmas hits: “The Christmas Song”, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”…; Christmas classics: “March of the Toys” from Babes in Toyland (on DVD),
“Nutcracker Sweets (Waltz of the Flowers…)” from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker (on DVD);
Santa songs: “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”, “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”, “When Santa Claus Gets Your Letter”, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”…; winter songs: “Frosty the Snowman”, “Suzy Snowflake”, “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” “Jingle-Bell Rock”, “Nuttin for Christmas”… …; children’s songs: Rogers and Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music (the 40th anniversary edition is now on DVD),
One of the songs in this book, which is not well-known, is “Happy Birthday, Jesus”, words by Estelle Levitt and music by Lee Pockriss. This song reinforces the lesson that long after toys are outgrown and broken, gifts from the heart last. A poor family, without enough money to buy gifts, has a mom who sits up all night writing a song to give her children. The song emphasizes that Christmas morning is the birthday of Jesus and each chorus sings Happy Birthday to Jesus. This gift lives on and is passed down each generation - a lovely example of a family tradition and fun song to listen to and sing. (Lee Pockriss also wrote “Catch a Falling Star” and “Itsty Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polk Dot Bikini”)
Another song in the Reader’s Digest Songbook is “’Twas in the Moon of Wintertime”. This is known as the first North American Christmas carol. After reading an article written by Jean K. Potratz in the December 1990 issue of St. Anthony Messenger magazine, I had a new appreciation for this song and more especially, its author, Fr. Jean de Brebeuf, a Jesuit missionary from France who went to the now Thunder Bay area of Canada in the mid 1600s. He lived and worked among the Hurons, learning their language and culture and teaching them about Christianity. It was a difficult and dangerous undertaking due to attacks on the Hurons by the fierce Iroquois. Fr. Brebeuf persisted in his mission and was responsible for the conversion of several Native Americans. In order to help them better understand the birth of Jesus, in 1640, he wrote the words for “’Twas in the Moon of Wintertime” in the Huron language and set the words to an old French carol. He wrote of “wand’ring hunters” instead of shepherds; “a lodge of broken bark” instead of a stable; “a ragged robe of rabbit skin” instead of swaddling clothes; “chiefs from afar” instead of kings; “fox and beaver pelt” instead of gifts. The Hurons came to understand that a special baby was born who was like one of them. The Hurons understood the joy of Christmas!
For information about the background and history of some Christmas favories, see the December 2009 issue of St. Anthoony Messenger and read the article by Mary Jo Dangel.
Well, that’s a glimpse of some great Christmas songs! Merry Christmas and happy singing!!
A great Christmas story song NOT in the Reader’s Digest Songbook, but one near and dear to my heart, is "Birthday of a King", written by W.H. Neidlinger, first copyrighted in 1890, and again later in 1918 by G. Schirmer, Inc. The lyrics follow. You can Google “Birthday of a King” and find the sheet music and YouTube videos. If you aren’t familiar with this song, I think you’ll enjoy it. An excellent vocal piece!
Birthday of a King by W.H. Neidlinger
In the little village of Bethlehem,
There lay a child one day,
And the sky was bright,
With a holy light,
O'er the place where Jesus lay.
Alleluia!
O how the angels sang!
Alleluia!
How it rang!
And the sky was bright,
With a holy light,
'Twas the birthday of a King.
Humble birthplace,
But O!
How much God gave to us that day!
From the manger bed what a path has led,
What a perfect holy way.
Alleluia!
O how the angels sang!
Alleluia!
How it rang!
And the sky was bright,
With a Holy light,
'Twas the birthday of a King.
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