I have to do some Christmas shopping this morning, so I’ll have to hustle to keep this blog up and running: but how can I get a better start than this? Do You Hear What I Hear?, sung by Bing Crosby–and I was amazed to learn this carol was only published in 1962.
Let’s have your Christmas hymn requests! Like, where is everybody? The hymn requests have dried up. Come on, now–let’s welcome Christmas 2016 in style.
I love this carol. It dates back to the 1600’s, although it wasn’t until sometime in the 1830s that it first appeared in print. This version is by Morning Vocals.
Christmas is coming! And we stand ready to proclaim it by posting your requests for Christmas hymns and carols. Remember what fun we had doing this, last Christmas? Well, it’s time to do it again!
You might remember this carol in another guise: Cat Stevens singing Morning Has Broken, back in the 1970s.
But these Christmas lyrics were originally in Gaelic, published in Scotland in the 19th century and later translated into English, and the melody is traditional Irish. It was adapted for the original Morning Has Broken in 1931–so what we were hearing forty-some years ago was already forty years old and then some.
Laura requested this one, and I chose this Celtic Woman version–O Holy Night.
This is the answer, this is the message, this is the meaning: this is the truth.
It might be said that this is the quintessential Advent hymn, O Come, O Come Emmanuel–here performed by a traditional choir in a lovely and rather complicated musical arrangement.
Hey, everybody–where are your Christmas music requests? We had a lot of fun with that last year! Let’s proclaim the coming of the Lord!
An old, old Christmas carol, first published in the 16th century, performed the old-fashioned way by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band–God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.
Ladies and gents, it’s December 1 and time and start getting in the mood for Christmas. But of course we have something way more important to do than that: to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and to testify to all the world that yes, yes, yes–He came in the flesh, and He will come again.
So come on, let’s whoop it up! Let’s have your requests for Christmas music. Come on now, let’s get busy!
Well, I’m having technical prombles all of a sudden, so I didn’t get the hymn I thought I’d posted. But the one I did get is so gorgeous, I don’t have the heart to replace it. So let’s see if I can give you “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” with this link: cross my fingers, and here goes.
Will this work? If not, I give up for now.
Ta-dah!
Here’s another one from “jessicafischerqueen,” via my chess page: Elvis Presley singing Silent Night. Beautiful! Just beautiful.
And let’s get our Christmas celebration under way! With Away in a Manger, sung by John Denver–beautiful.
Thanks to our esteemed colleague, “Jessicafischerqueen,” for posting this on my chess page.
Just like last year, everybody, I’ll be taking your requests for Christmas hymns and posting them here. Make as many as you want!
You don’t hear many Christmas carols in August. I stumbled over this one this morning, and couldn’t resist posting it–the old Burgundian carol, Pat-a-Pan, performed by David Archuleta… with the first verse sung in the original Burgundian French. How often do you get to hear that?
When I played this, it stirred my soul. Not that I call for every day to be Christmas: that would quickly ruin it. But it’s a good thing to remember, every day, that Jesus Christ Our Savior, Jesus Christ Our King, has indeed come in the flesh, come right into this fallen world of ours–and will surely come again.
In fact, He is already here with us, every day.
Yes, I know it’s a Christmas carol. Like that’s a bad thing?
Anyhow, I woke up yesterday with this song in my head, it stayed with me all day, and try as I would, I cannot remember where I heard it, or how long ago. I don’t remember it ever being sung in our church or Sunday school. And so, as unlikely as it would seem to us in these evil times, I think I must have learned this song in school… public school, grade one or two. Long, long ago.
The LORD reigneth; let the people tremble: He sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved. (Psalm 99:1)