Silent Night

Especially for

From

Date

Introduction

Section 1:
C
AROLS OF
P
EACE

Silent Night

Away in a Manger

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

It Came upon the Midnight Clear

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Love Came Down at Christmas

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

Still, Still, Still

Section 2:
C
AROLS OF
W
ONDER
,

Angels, from the Realms of Glory

Good Christian Men, Rejoice

O Come, All Ye Faithful

Infant Holy, Infant Lowly

Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending

The Birthday of a King

Section 3:
C
AROLS OF
P
RAISE

Good King Wenceslas

Hark! the Herald Angels Sing

O Holy Night

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks

For unto Us a Child Is Born

Go, Tell It on the Mountain

Angels We Have Heard on High

There’s a Song in the Air

Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne

He Is Born, the Divine Christ Child

Section 4:
C
AROLS OF
M
YSTERY

What Child Is This?

Coventry Carol

I Saw Three Ships

The Twelve Days of Christmas

The First Noel

The Holly and the Ivy

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Section 5:
C
AROLS OF
J
OY

Once in Royal David’s City

As with Gladness Men of Old

Carol of the Bells

Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella

Here We Come A-Wassailing

Joy to the World

The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy

We Three Kings

W
hat is it about Christmas carols that make them simply wonderful? Maybe it’s because we listen to and sing these songs during the beloved holiday season—a season revolving around family, parties, gift-giving, and general merriness that endear these time-tested tunes to our hearts.

But the deeper meaning, the true meaning of the lyrics is really what sets apart a Christmas carol from just any other old song:

In these pages you’ll find stories behind the creation of forty beloved Christmas carols. Allow the stories to speak to your heart and find the inspiration you need to celebrate the true meaning of the season.

For unto us a child is born …
and his name shall be called …
Prince of Peace
.
I
SAIAH
9:6

Silent night! holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and Child
.
Holy Infant, so tender and mild
,
Sleep in heavenly peace;
Sleep in heavenly peace
.

T
he romantic version of the “Silent Night” story has an Austrian priest at his wits’ end when the church organ breaks down on Christmas Eve. With the prospect of a silent night ahead, he and the organist come up with a new hymn that can be sung without accompaniment. The result, “Silent Night,” goes on to become one of the most popular Christmas carols of all time.

The real story (according to Silent Night Museum in Salzburg, Austria) is grittier but possibly more inspirational.

Joseph Mohr was born illegitimately in a time when illegitimacy halted any possibility of social progress. Fortunately, his singing voice caught the ear of the cathedral choirmaster, and he was encouraged into the priesthood.

Working as an assistant priest, he helped translate hymns from Latin to German, to the delight of parishioners and the fury of the church establishment. Mohr’s liberal priest was replaced by a hard-liner.

Resenting Mohr’s popularity, the new priest attempted to blacken his reputation by bringing up his illegitimate beginnings. The battle of wills culminated on Christmas Eve 1818 when the church organ mysteriously died. Mice were blamed, but another likely suspect was Mohr’s friend, organist Franz Gruber. He put music to lyrics Mohr had written two years before, and “Silent Night” had its first public performance. It was sung in German with a guitar accompaniment, something that normally never would have been allowed.

The carol’s popularity in both German and English made it the one song both armies could sing in unison from their trenches during the Christmas truce of 1914.

Joseph Mohr died in 1863. He left this world as poor as he came into it, having given everything he had for the sake of the poor. Not only did the life of this relatively unknown priest benefit his parishioners, but it glorified his Lord and gave the whole world a beautiful reminder of the night the world fell silent lest it wake a newborn baby.

And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him
.

H
EBREWS 1
:6

Away in a manger
,
No crib for a bed
,
The little Lord Jesus
Laid down His sweet head
.
The stars in the sky
Looked down where He lay
,
The little Lord Jesus
Asleep on the hay
.

S
ome things in this world—melodies, concepts, prayers—touch the human soul so deeply it would almost be a shame to ascribe them earthly authorship. “Away in a Manger,” the first carol many children ever learn, encompasses our feeling of Christmas so completely that it might have been a gift to the world rather than something teased from a mind and scratched out in pen and ink.

Fittingly, no one knows who came up with the first two verses, although the image of reforming clergyman Martin Luther singing it over his children’s cradles has proven remarkably durable despite there being no proof he wrote the carol. It does, however, fit beautifully with Luther’s belief that all comfort and rest are to be found in God.

The third verse, beginning with “Be near me,” appears slightly later and, despite having various claimants for authorship, ultimately remains as mysterious as the rest.