I want to encourage readers to enter our Second Annual Christmas Carol Contest, especially anyone who hasn’t entered already–but I don’t have any entries yet this morning.
So let’s get the ball rolling with this–Ding-Dong Merrily on High, by the Idaho Falls Symphony Orchestra with half a dozen high school choirs>> a spirited rendition!
If ever we needed tidings of comfort and joy, we need them now. And we’ve got them–in the birth of our Savior and our King, our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God.
Requested by Joshua: God Rest You Merry Gentlemen, sung with gusto by the Bach Choir.
Back to the Christmas Carol Contest–It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, and you can’t beat Burl Ives. Requested by Phoebe.
And I have to get off this accursed computer because it’s not working and it took me ten minutes to write these two lines.
We don’t have any new entries yet today in our Second Annual Christmas Carol Contest, so let me offer this–Good Christian Men Rejoice, by the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers. Don’t worry, I’m not entering my own contest. Just hoping some of you who haven’t entered yet will come on board.
Requested by Joshua: by the magic of a capella looping, David Wesley sings The King Is Born Tonight.
Personal note: a blast from the past! This tune was first sung in 1939–in the Zulu language–and became a hit when it was translated into English as “The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Whimoway).” I haven’t heard it since I was a schoolboy. Lovely music, put to a new and lovely use! And now the tune’s going to be in my head all day.
Today’s first entry in our Second Annual Christmas Carol Contest is from Thewhiterabbit–Mary, Did You Know, sung by Clay Aiken.
So far we have a clear leader with 25 views on the day it was requested, but I don’t want to reveal any more than that. And there’s lot of time for lots more carols.
Requested by Phoebe, On Jordan’s Bank, isn’t strictly speaking, a Christmas carol–but we do have to follow the Lord to His baptism, by John, in the River Jordan. We have it here by the Norwich Cathedral Choir in England.
SlimJim entered this carol last night, Come Let Us Adore Him. I’d never heard it before, so I hope you like this rendition by Amanda Cook–complete with falling snowflakes.
Phoebe requested this, one of my very favorite Christmas carols–I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In. True, it’s impossible to sail a ship to Bethlehem; but geography wasn’t a priority when this song was first sung. This lively rendition is by Blackmore’s Night.
Whew! I need to calm down! Well, if Nat King Cole can’t calm you down, who can?
Requested by Erlene, The First Noel–and duly entered into our Christmas Carol Contest.
So far most readers are sitting back and letting Erlene and Phoebe do all the work. It’d be nice if, say, 100 different readers submitted carol entries.
Byron the Quokka says I need to offer ritzier prizes. But aw, come on! Christmas carols are prizes in and of themselves!