Requested by Phoebe, today’s first entry in our Christmas Carol Contest–The Holly and the Ivy, by the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers. (I was sure she was going to ask for Joy to the World. My whole schedule is thrown off now.)
Yes, we have more entries!
I simply couldn’t find the hymn that Erlene asked for, so I had to put in a substitute. Now pinch-hitting for Carroll Roberson: Donna Roberson, singing O Holy Night.
Don’t forget the Christmas Carol Contest, everybody!
Submitted by “thewhiterabbit,” this is the first entry in our annual Christmas Carol Contest–Unto Us a Child Is Born (see Isaiah 9:6-7), from Handel’s Messiah, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.
Let the Christmas season begin!
G’day after Thanksgiving! Byron the Quokka here–and without any further ado, I hereby officially launch this year’s Christmas Carol Contest!
Here are the rules. They’re real complicated, so pay attention!
You can enter as often as you like.
Your carol must have some connection to celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ–we won’t bother with “I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus.”
The winner (this is the hard part!) is whoever posts the carol that gets the most views on the day it’s posted. This makes it exciting, because the lead can change hands every day, right down to the wire.
And look! Our first entry is in already, submitted by “thewhiterabbit.” He got on board early! Here on Rottnest Island, we call that “getting on board early.”
There are so many beautiful performances of The First Noel (Nat King Cole springs immediately to mind), but for today I chose the one by the choir at Kings College, Cambridge. I meant to surprise Erlene with it yesterday, but wasn’t able to get around to it.
I guess we’re open for Christmas carols now! And on Friday we’ll open our annual Christmas Carol Contest.
Am I jumping the gun with Christmas? No–follow the lyrics; there is no bad time for this.
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing–words by Charles Wesley, music by Mendelssohn, organ solo by Stephen Holowitz at St. James Anglican Church in London, Toronto.
There are folks on YouTube who are just crazy about jumping spiders. Patty fell in love with this cute video. I offer it as a bit of wimsey, worth a smile or two. Who ever thought of cute spiders? And yet they are. Kind of.
I have absolutely no idea how this video was made. Can you really train spiders to gift-wrap presents?
Yes, I usually save this hymn for Christmas-time. But I don’t really have to, do I? Quite simply, this is a hymn I want to hear today: sung by the Libera boys’ choir, Gloria in Excelsis Deo. Some of you will be able to work out the Latin even if you’ve never studied it.
Yes, all right, it’s a Christmas hymn–tell me there’s a bad time for that.
First sung in 1582, Personent Hodie–sung here by the choir and congregation at First Presbyterian Church in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.
No, it’s not too early for a Christmas hymn! In fact, if you’ve read the previous post and seen that appalling video, there couldn’t be a better time for this–O Come, All Ye Faithful by the Kings College Choir at Cambridge University. And if I were to try to speak out loud just now, I’d burst into tears.
No, the devils haven’t won! Yes, they’re running wild just now, unrestrained in their wickedness, preying on the people they ought to protect: but Jesus Christ has come into the world, and will come again; and He will save us. In fact He’s here already, never farther than a prayer away.
It’s never too early for that.