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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   3129 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for November 24, 2023

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What are some of your favorite Christmas carols?

In preparation for Advent, I'm going to teach my kids some songs this year, and while we'll be doing the hokey kiddie stuff like Jingle Bells, I want to sing a few more serious and cool ones like Gaudete, Christus Est Natus or the Coventry Carol (okay, maybe we won't sing that one).

Also, tomorrow is the Feast of Christ the King. Here's an early happy liturgical new year to those following such things!

I rather like Christmas carols, and I grew up learning a bunch at school and church, so I’ll give you a lot. First, some of the ones I learned as a child:

  • Adeste Fideles/O Come, All Ye Faithful
  • Angels We Have Heard on High
  • Away in a Manger
  • Ding Dong, Merrily on High
  • From Heaven Above to Earth I Come
  • God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen
  • Good King Wenceslaus
  • Hark! the Herald Angels Sing
  • I Saw Three Ships
  • In Dulci Jubilo
  • O Come, Little Children (Ihr Kinderlein Kommet)
  • O Holy Night
  • O How Joyfully (O Du Fröhliche)
  • O Little Town of Bethlehem
  • Silent Night
  • The First Noel
  • We Three Kings
  • What Child Is This

Kids tend to especially like “Angels We Have Heard” and “Ding Dong, Merrily” for the lengthy slurs in the refrains.

Others that I learned as an adult and rather like:

  • A Babe Is Born All of a Maid (this is also frequently set to a modern tune, but I vastly prefer the one I linked)
  • On This Day, Earth Shall Ring (Personent Hodie)
  • Sussex Carol
  • The Seven Joys of Mary

Then of course there are the many fantastic Advent hymns (O Come, O Come, Emmanuel; The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came; Savior of the Nations, Come, etc.), and plenty of other good Christmas hymns that I wouldn’t consider quite carols.

I've been whistling Good King Wenceslaus to myself since Friday. Don't know why I started but... Can't stop...

It’s a great tune. Definitely not the worst earworm to have.

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