Top 10 Christmas Carols (What is your favorite Christmas Carol?)

MarysAggies.blogspot.com ^ | 2010 | MarysAggies.blogspot.com

[Salvation]

Top 10 Christmas Carols

Let the debate begin! Below is my subjective list of favorites, with videos of good to great renditions of each. I have also included my favorite line(s) of each song:

Top 10 Christmas Carols

10 - O Little Town of Bethlehem

Favorite line(s):

Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight

 

Embedded video at the site  http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-christmas-carols.html

9 - Angels We Have Heard on High

Favorite line(s):
Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why your joyous strains prolong?
What the gladsome tidings be
Which inspire your heavenly song?

 

 

Embedded video at the site  http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-christmas-carols.html

8 - Joy To The World

Favorite line(s):
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessing flow
far as the curse is found,

 

 

Embedded video at the site  http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-christmas-carols.html

7 - What Child is This?

Favorite line(s):
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and Angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

 

 

Embedded video at the site  http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-christmas-carols.html

6 - Silent Night

Favorite line(s):
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar

 

 

Embedded video at the site  http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-christmas-carols.html

5 - O Come O Come Emmanuel

Favorite line(s):
O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear

 

 

Embedded video at the site  http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-christmas-carols.html

4 - Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Favorite line(s):
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity

 

 

Embedded video at the site  http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-christmas-carols.html

3 - O Come All Ye Faithful

Favorite line(s):
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him,

 

 

Embedded video at the site  http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-christmas-carols.html

2 - Once In Royal David's City

Favorite line(s):
For He is our childhood's pattern;
Day by day, like us, He grew;
He was little, weak, and helpless,
Tears and smiles, like us He knew;
And He cares when we are sad,
And he shares when we are glad.

 

 

Embedded video at the site  http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-christmas-carols.html

1 - O Holy Night

Favorite line(s):
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!

 

 

Embedded video at the site  http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-christmas-carols.html



--------
Just Missed the Cut:

• Away In A Manger
• Mary, Did You Know?
• The First Noel
• Go Tell It On The Mountain
• It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
• Angels We Have Heard on High
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
• Do You Hear What I Hear?
• I Saw Three Ships
• Breath of Heaven
• We Three Kings

[Venturer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm9K7UK47FQ&playnext=1&list=PLB0679F5D4CA9741D&index=35

[dfwgator]

Always hard to get a good literal Polish-English translation but here the best one I could find:

Miserable, quiet, stable on the earth,
Full heavenly glory.
Here’s lying on the hay, asleep
The small rays of Jesus.

Above him stood the angels in flight
I bent knees
With golden hair, with white wings,
Under the rainbow-painted.

Big surprise: all of creation
Worldwide salvation;
Wisdom of Wisdom, Light of Light,
God - man incarnate here!

And here, poor people
Glad to see the Lord,
Full of inspiration, full of wonder
They fell to their knees.

Here is Mary, a pure lily,
When the old man trembling
They stand before us, before shepherds
With such smiling.

[OpusatFR]

Coventry Carol and O Come All Ye Faithful.

[Salvation]

Beautiful even with the translation.....would love to hear it in Polish. I think I enjoyed Poland the most (other than Auschwitz) when I took a pilgrimage to the Eastern Europe countries. Oh, my, too much to even mention.

[OpusatFR]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIvH5GdY4JE

Coventry Carol - Westminster Cathedral Choir

[Non-Sequitur]

Probably "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" for one particular reason. The Kansas City Repertory Theater does "A Christmas Carol" every year and there is a part in the second act where several of the cast begin to sing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful". And as they are doing so, the rest of the cast - and its' pretty big - come down the aisles bearing candles singing along with them. They all wind up on stage for the third chorus and it is, to me, the highlight of the play. There's a part of it about 2 minutes into this clip. Link

But really I like all the old carols - Fum, Fum, Fum; Bring the Torch; We Three Kings; God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen; Here We Come A Caroling; Coventry Carol; and all the rest.

[Doomonyou]

Great list. I’m with you on “O Holy Night.”

[Salvation]

**I can’t recall ever having sung it.**

Me either, but I just found it in the new missalette.

First verse
Once in roal David’s city
Stood a lowly cattle shed.
Where a mother and her baby
In a manger for his bed.
Mary was that mother mild
Jesus Christ her little child

[IrishCatholic]

I grew up hearing “Guardian Angels Surround my bed” by Mario Lanza.

I only heard it with the Christmas music. It sticks with me more than any other.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U025d5CtLWU&feature=related

[Salvation]

It’s an old one
Cecil Frances Alelxander 1818-1895
Henry Gauntlett, 1805-1876

[Salvation]

Mario Lanza — haven’t heard that voice in a long time!

[Grunthor]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC-b4mYFT1A

My favorite for the last few years.

[VanDeKoik]

We Three Kings is my #1.

Vocal or instrumental. It always sounds so regal and ancient.

[IrishCatholic]

I inherited the family albums. But, I haven’t got the skills to transfer them to digital. My wife bought an advanced digital turntable convinced that she could do it, rather than the simple idiot proof one I picked. She believed she had the ability with all the software.

Well, it sits under its dust cover and the albums sit in storage.

It all works out in the end, though. The next time I do something and she says “What were you thinking?”, I’ve got the digital turntable card to play :-)

[Salvation]

It is beautiful!

[MarineBrat]

One of my favorite Christmas song sites is www.falalalala.com

Lots of great Americana music from years past, much of it available for download.

[Mr. Mojo]

Favorite Christmas carol — Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Favorite Christmas song — White Christmas

[Stonewall Jackson]

My favorite is Silent Night both in English and the original German.

I love Oh Come All Ye Faithful, but every time I hear it, I think of the scene from the movie The Great Escape where the POW's are hammering out the air duct in time to the song. It's a wonderful carol, but I want to bust out laughing every time I hear it.

[Salvation]

Thanks, MB, but my computer doesn’t have the available space for that. Great site, though.

[reg45]

Ditto.

And a vote for Silent Night (in the original German).