Youtube has this mislabeled as Joy to the World, which is what I expected to hear when I clicked it. But what comes out is this beautiful performance, by the kids at Fountainview Academy, of Away in a Manger.
Think about it. To a world boiling over with wickedness, suffering, sin, and death, God sends, to repair it and redeem it… a baby in a manger.
Christianity is an excitingly wild idea. The more you think on it, the wilder it gets. But as C.S. Lewis said, “He’s not a tame lion.”
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“Thewhiterabbit” asked for this one, Good Christian Men, Rejoice: with a beautiful performance by the Robert Shaw Chorale.
we’re going to keep on posting Christmas hymns for the full 12 Days of Christmas–so keep your requests coming.
Following a suggestion by our esteemed colleague, “thewhiterabbit,” [you wouldn’t believe the typo I just corrected: “thewhiterabbi”] I’m going to keep posting Christmas music until the 12 days of Christmas are fulfilled. So keep those Christmas hymn requests coming!
While Shepherd Watched came out in 1703, while good Queen Anne was on the throne of England. Lyrics by Nahum Tate, melody by Handel. And if you’d like to know what it sounded like back then, I can’t do better than assign that job to Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band.
One glimpse at the news this morning, and I’m just not ready to stop posting Christmas music. Lord, if we ever needed you, we need you now.
So, here is Do You Hear What I Hear, by the Harry Simeone Chorale.
And again, we’re still taking requests.
We say yes to all requests for Christmas hymns here, so this encore is for Linda: Mary, Did You Know?
If nobody objects, I’d like to keep on posting Christmas hymns for the rest of the week. We’ll never use them all up.
Embarrassment of riches! I’ll never get all the Christmas songs posted that I’d like to post. Oh, well–I’ll just do as many as I can.
So I hope you enjoy this one: What Child Is This?, sung by John Denver. And I’m still taking requests…
Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. (Isaiah 60:1-3)
Father in Heaven, this day we proclaim that Light has entered the world, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Bless this Christmas Day of 2017 and give it extraordinary power, all throughout the coming year, to draw our hearts to Jesus Christ, our only Savior and our King, the Son of God. You see how we need Him! Bring forth that day, O Lord our God, when every knee shall bow to Jesus Christ, and every tongue confess Him lord: in Jesus’ name, amen.
(Hymn: Light of the World by Charles Wesley, performed by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band)
Requested by Susan, here on Christmas Day: Once in Royal David’s City, performed by the boys’ choir at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Oh, this beautiful music! And this is one of those melodies that you know, that drift into your mind from time to time, and yet you don’t know it’s name, so you can’t go looking for it. I’m so glad I now know where it comes from. Thank you, Susan!
It’s my custom, around Christmas-time, to post this, My Love’s an Arbutus, performed by the Fairhaven Singers. I’ve never seen an arbutus, and there’s but a tenuous connection between this song and Christmas. It’s used as Alice’s theme–the girl young Scrooge should have loved and married–in A Christmas Carol, the 1951 classic starring Alistair Sim. We watch it every year, and it never, never fails to move us. If its message of redemption and renewal is not the Christmas message, well, then, I don’t know what is.
Well, our Christmas tree is up, it’s trimmed, our new stove is cooking a duck for Christmas dinner, the cats are asleep, and my stars, am I beat!
I can’t believe I haven’t posted Silent Night yet. Let us remedy that, forthwith.
As for that Pew Poll–well, Robert Louis Stevenson didn’t call that character in Treasure Island “Blind Pew” for nothing.
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Blind Pew… one of the villains