Christmas song lyrics for carolers, holiday parties and corporate events. To brighten your holiday season we have provided you with a large assortment of Christmas song lyrics for you, your friends and family to enjoy. This is a list of some of the most popular Christmas songs put together each link goes to a page with the lyrics to the christmas song named. we hope you have a very Mary Christmas and a happy new year.
The First Christmas carol
The earliest known copy of an English carol was probably written
about A.D. 1410 by Ritson The Christmas song lyrics were: I saw a sweet, a seemly sight, A blissful burd, a blossom bright, That mourning made and mirth among: A maiden mother meek and mild In cradle keep a knave child, That softly slept; she sat and sung, Lullay, lulla balow, My bairn, sleep softly now.
Christmas song lyrics from a Songbook, written about 1450, goes:
I sing of a maiden that is makeless (mateless); King of all kings to her Son she ches (chose?) He came all so still to His mothers bower As dew in April that falleth on the flower. Mother and maiden, was never none but she: Well may such a lady Gods mother be.
Some English carols were called mystical because of their rich
legendary lore. Many lacked the reverence but were festive and
enjoyed by most. In one such carol the singer pretends to be Christ on the eve of his marriage to the church:
Tomorrow shall be my dancing day: I would my true love so did chance To see the legend of my play, To call my true love to my dance.
In a manger laid and wrapped I was, So very poor, this was my chance, Between an ox and a silly poor ass, To call my true love to my dance.
By the Elizabethan Period, poets wrote carols of a more polished character. They still dealt with the life of the Christ Child. The best, by far, of this era would be Nahum Tates While Shepherds watched their flocks by night. This work was more of a transitional piece from true carols to hymns and paved the way for such Methodist Revival hymns as Hark! The herald angels sing, Angels , from the realms of glory, or It came upon a midnight clear. These were made wide spread over the years by careful
editors and enterprising publishers. On Christmas Day in England, these carols took the place of psalms in the churches, especially at afternoon service with the congregation joining in. At the end of the service the parish clerk would usually declare in a loud voice his wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
By the nineteenth century in America, floods of bells pealed out tunes as Christmas Eve became Morning. Large choirs joined the great church organs in performances of Handels Messiah, which was known as early as 1770 in Colonial America, two years before its first performance in the composers native Germany.