Is Your Favorite Christmas Carol On This 19th Century List?


Just for fun, here’s a list of carols written during or around the mid-19th century.

Angels We Have Heard on High (1862)
Come Buy my Nice Fresh Ivy or O’Carolan’s Lament (1849)
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (1833)
Good King Wenceslas (1853)
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (1855)
Jingle Bells (1857)
Joy to the World (1839)
O Christmas Tree (1824)
O Holy Night (1847)
Silent Night (1859)
We Three Kings (1863)
What Child is This (1865)

Is your favorite traditional carol on the list? Whether it is or isn't, please share your favorite carol with your CWT friends! I'll start us off. My favorite is "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." This carol is based on the 1863 poem "Christmas Bells" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It reflects the despair of hearing Christmas bells during the American Civil War. I love that it ends with the bells ringing renewed hope for peace among men.
Not a favorite if you're Southern - it's a Southern hate song, Longfellows's son was injured and he was bitter, and looking for the day the South would be conquered. "the wrong shall fail, the right prevail" then there will be peace on earth.
 
Not a favorite if you're Southern - it's a Southern hate song, Longfellows's son was injured and he was bitter, and looking for the day the South would be conquered. "the wrong shall fail, the right prevail" then there will be peace on earth.

I'm a Southerner - born and bred - and this carol is one of my favorites. Of course I also think the right side prevailed in the Civil War. Merry Christmas @Confederate Rose and welcome to CWT!
 
I love them all. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, translated into English in 1861, wasn’t on the list and I like it too. O Little Town of Bethlehem, 1868, is also a favorite though not included. It just depends on the mood. Joy to the World is uplifting. Silent Night is perfectly simple and direct and perfect: the story behind it so appealing. They’re all grand!
 
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Just for fun, here’s a list of carols written during or around the mid-19th century.

Angels We Have Heard on High (1862)
Come Buy my Nice Fresh Ivy or O’Carolan’s Lament (1849)
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (1833)
Good King Wenceslas (1853)
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (1855)
Jingle Bells (1857)
Joy to the World (1839)
O Christmas Tree (1824)
O Holy Night (1847)
Silent Night (1859)
We Three Kings (1863)
What Child is This (1865)

Is your favorite traditional carol on the list? Whether it is or isn't, please share your favorite carol with your CWT friends! I'll start us off. My favorite is "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." This carol is based on the 1863 poem "Christmas Bells" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It reflects the despair of hearing Christmas bells during the American Civil War. I love that it ends with the bells ringing renewed hope for peace among men.
This includes most of mine, and most of these are indeed favorites - the only one I notice missing is Good Christian Men Rejoice which I have on a favorite Robert Shaw Christmas album.
 
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I love them all. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, translated into English in 1861, wasn’t on the list and I like it too. O Little Town of Bethlehem, 1868, is also a favorite though not included. It just depends on the mood. Joy to the World is uplifting. Silent Night is perfectly simple and direct and perfect: the story behind it so appealing. They’re all grand!

Merry Christmas to you and Mrs. P!!! Thanks for adding O Come, O Come, Emmanuel and O Little Town of Bethlehem to the list. They are both lovely!
 
"I'll be Home for Christmas " was always sad to me , though well done . It came out in 1943 and is from the perspective of a GI serving in WW2.
I never knew the story behind it Kurt, but I have always found it to be sad too. This explains it. A lot of folks are separated from the ones they love at Christmas for various reasons.
Of course similarly, White Christmas was written around the same time for a movie in which its Southern California Hollywood-based character is pining away for a "real" Christmas!
 
My favorite - “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” written by Edmund Sears (1810-1876) as a poem in 1849 (music in 1850). It was said to be a particular melancholy period of time in his life thus reflected in his words:

“Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,

And hear the angels sing.”

Yet he manages to end with the hope of Christmas:

“For lo!, the days are hastening on,
By prophet bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world give back the song

Which now the angels sing.”

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
 
I never heard this as a child, but this 1888 song,Love Came Down at Christmas, is now one of my favorites.
  1. Love came down at Christmas,
    Love all lovely, Love divine;
    Love was born at Christmas,
    Star and angels gave the sign.
  2. Worship we the Godhead,
    Love incarnate, Love divine;
    Worship we our Jesus:
    But wherewith for sacred sign?
  3. Love shall be our token,
    Love be yours and love be mine,
    Love to God and all men,
    Love for plea and gift and sign.
 
I have 3 more carols I want to add.

"Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" which was first published in Cologne, Germany in 1599.

Once In Royal David's City" which was first written as a poem and carol published in 1848.

"Coventry Carol" which dates to the 16th century. My High School chorale group always sang this one at our Christmas program.

It starts:

"Lully, lullay Thou little tiny child..".
 
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