Christmas Carols

I love singing Christmas carols. It is that time of year when I cheerly put aside my Unitarian doubts and rejoice in the Christmas story, when a little child was born, who has brought hope to the world. Christmas Carol Services are very popular with Unitarians, with chapels, churches and meeting houses hosting larger than usual congregations.

I love playing them too, and singing them at home. The two carol books above contain simplified versions of many popular carols, which I can still play, albeit slowly.

I was looking through the books the other day, and was fascinated by the rich mixture of beliefs and traditions they represent. Because the Christmas story is a complex one - Matthew tells one story (Jesus born in a house in Bethlehem, the Magi coming to visit him, the flight into Egypt, and eventual relocation to Nazareth) and Luke tells quite another (the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the birth in a stable, the shepherds coming to worship the child, the return to Nazareth). And today, it is all mashed together into one not-quite-Biblical story, re-enacted by young children each year.

There seem to be fewer carols which tell only Matthew's version of the story: We Three Kings, Three Kings from Persian Lands Afar, As With Gladness, Men of Old, and Star of the South, for example. But more which tell only Luke's version: Away in a Manger, While Shepherds Watched, See Amid the Winter's Snow, Silent Night, Once in Royal David's City, and It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. 

Many carol writers bit the bullet and went for both: The First Nowell, O Come All Ye Faithful, O Little Town of Bethlehem,, the Zither Carol, Unto Us a Boy is Born, Angels from the Realms of Glory, Past Three O'Clock, What Child is This? and Rejoice and Be Merry.

There are also many carols which are about the older, Pagan elements of Christmastide, or about Medieval Christmas customs. Examples include Here We Come a Wassailing, Deck the Hall, The Holly and the Ivy, O Christmas Tree, and The Boar's Head Carol. Others are simply joyful Christmas songs: We Wish You a Merry Christmas, The Twelve Days of Christmas, Christmas is Coming, Jingle Bells and Ding Dong Merrily on High.

There are even some which commemorate events which happened during the Christmas season: Good King Wenceslas ("on the feast of Stephen") and the heart-breaking Coventry Carol, which tells the story from Matthew's gospel of the massacre of the Holy Innocents.

But none of this matters. What matters is that Christmas brings people together, and reminds us that hope can be born in the darkest of times, and that there is still room, still time, for coming together to worship and rejoice, to spend time with the people we love.

Merry Christmas!