Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays: My Top Five All-Time Favorite Christmas Hymns

I hope you have as much fun and joy reading this as I had in writing it.

Number Five: O' Little Town of Bethlehem

Background: Phillip Brooks, the author this hymn, was one of America's outstanding hymn writers. During a trip to Palestine in 1865, Brooks went to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve and worshipped there. He was deeply moved by this experience. Three years later, while pasturing the Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia, Brooks wanted a special carol for children to sing in the Sunday school Christmas program.

Recalling the peaceful scene in the little town of Bethlehem, Brooks completed the writing of the lyrics in just one evening. He gave a copy of the words to his organist, Lewis R. Redner, and requested that he compose a tune that would be easy for children to sing. On the evening just before the program was to be given, Redner quickly awakened out of his sleep with the present melody in his mind --- he quickly wrote it out.

My Favorite Stanza:

O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight

"The hopes and fears of all the years are met in the tonight" --- His birth brought comfort too many and great fear as well. To all that were weary and heavy-laden, he was, for them a giver of rest. Yet, it would be negligent not to recognize that His birth was a threat to the greedy, the power-mad and to the arrogantly affluent, He was a threat to all they held dear. The lamb and the lion rested as one, in the heart of this baby born in Bethlehem.

Number Four: Angels We Have Heard on High

Background: The words of the song are based on a traditional French carol known as Les Anges dans nos campagnes (literally, "Angels in our countryside"). Its most common English version was translated in 1862 by James Chadwick. The carol quickly became popular in the West Country, where it was described as 'Cornish' by R.R. Chope and featured in Pickard-Cambridge's Collection of Dorset Carols.

There is also a Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) translation of the carol which is known as Ainglean chuala sinn gu h-ard (literally, "Angels We Have Heard on High"). This was translated into Gaelic by Iain MacMilan from James Chadwick's English translation.

The song commemorates the story of the birth of Jesus Christ found in the Gospel of Luke, in which shepherds outside Bethlehem encounter a multitude of angels singing and praising the newborn child.

It is most commonly sung to the hymn tune "Gloria", as arranged by Edward Shippen Barnes. Its most memorable feature is its chorus:

Gloria in Excelsis Deo! (Latin for "Glory to God in the highest")

Favorite Stanza:

Gloria in Excelsis Deo
Gloria in Excelsis Deo

Glory to God in the Highest! I am not here to argue the existence of God or the validity of The Incarnation. Yes, I believe in a Supreme Being and The Incarnation; and that belief produces in me a desire and need to praise. I suppose once I have accepted the existence of a God, anything is possible --- even the miracle of angels on high announcing the birth of God incarnate.

Number Three: Silent Night! Holy Night!

Background: Joseph Mohr, assistant priest in the Church of St. Nicholas in the region of Tyrol, high in the Swiss Alps and Franz Gruber, the village schoolmaster and church organist, had often talked about their belief that the perfect Christmas hymn had never been written. So Mohr had this goal in mind when he received word that the church organ would not function.

He decided to write his own Christmas hymn immediately, so that there would be music for the Christmas Eve mass. Upon completing the text, he took his words to Franz Gruber who exclaimed when he saw them, "Friend Mohr, you have found it – the right song – God be praised!"

Soon Gruber completed his task of composing an appropriate tune for the new text. His simple but beautiful tune blended wonderfully with the spirit of Joseph Mohr's words. The carol was completed in time for the Christmas Eve mass, and Mohr and Gruber sang their new hymn to the accompaniment of Gruber's guitar --- the hymn made a deep impression on the congregation.

When the organ repairman came to the little village church, he happened upon a copy of the song. He was so impressed that he decided to spread it all around the region of Tyrol.

Favorite Stanza:

Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth"

"Love's pure light"; "with dawn of redeeming grace." Love and redemption… the two, in my opinion, go hand in hand. It is love that whispers hope, when fear shouts despair; it is love that sees reclamation, when cynicism says: "tear them down." Love lights up the dark places in a hate-filled world and I believe that the greatest personification of love is Christ and it all began on that "silent" night that we now call Christmas.

Number Two: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Background: Christmas carols as we know them were abolished by the English Puritan parliament in 1627 because they were part of a "worldly festival," which they considered the celebration of Christmas to be. As a result there was a scarcity of Christmas hymns and carols in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Charles Wesley's Hark! The Herald Angels Sing was one of the few written during this period.

Wesley's powerful text and the melody by master composer Felix Mendelssohn, have given this hymn a cherished and popular place among Christmas songs. Like many of Charles Wesley's more than 6,500 hymns, this text clearly presents Christian theology in poetic language.

Favorite Stanza:

Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

The humility and power that this stanza expresses, is extremely moving to me. The personal interruption of human history by God is told in the words, "mild He lays His glory by" and the reason for this blessed interlude, in the embodiment and birth of Christ, is to "raise the sons of earth… to give them second birth."

Rejoice in the remembrance of this promise for renewal. There is power in those words; there is hope and there is joy.

Number One: O' Holy Night

Background: "O Holy Night" ("Cantique de Noël") is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, chrétiens" (Midnight, Christians) by Placide Cappeau (1808–1877), a wine merchant and poet, who had been asked by a parish priest to write a Christmas poem. Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight, editor of Dwight's Journal of Music, created a singing edition based on Cappeau's French text in 1855. Another edition begins "O Holy Night, the stars their gleams prolonging." In both the French original and in the two familiar English versions of the carol, the text reflects on the birth of Jesus and of mankind's redemption.

It is the John Sullivan Dwight version that is so familiar to Americans and it is the version that I most love as well.

Favorite Stanza:

Truly He taught us, to love one another;

His law is love, and His gospel is peace.

Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother;

And in His name, all oppression shall cease.

Sweet hymns of joy, in grateful chorus raise we,

Let all within us, Praise His holy name.

This is by far, in my opinion, the most radical and revolutionary Christmas hymns ever. It focuses on the social and moral implications and ramifications of the birth of Christ. It is gives no refuge to those who would try to couple the gospel with domination over their sister-woman or fellowman; it offers no sanctuary to bigotry, prejudice or hatred. It is in that law of love; it is in that gospel of peace, that we see the forgotten ones and the demoralized as our sisters and brothers. It remains for me a clarion call to love; to pursue peace and to challenge oppression.

May God bless you this Christmas season and throughout the coming New Year.