According to a Readers’ Digest article the oldest Christmas Carol is actually a hymn: “Jesus, Light of All Nations,” written in the 300s AD. It was sung in Latin and I have never heard of it. It was followed by the smash hit: “Of the Father’s Love Begotten.” also not a carol I’ve ever heard of and written in the 300s AD. One has to travel to the 12th Century to get to what we might recognize as an actual carol, but even this one escapes my knowledge, weak though it is in Christmas Carol histories: “The Friendly Beasts.” By the 13th Century monasteries had begun contributing to the Christmas song tradition and in France the inspired “Between the Ox and Grey Donkey” was written. There is a pattern of “Christmas songs not recognized by me” developing.
Finally, “O Come, All Ye Faithful ‘’ makes its appearance in the early 1800s – the most popular version of which was penned by an English priest. The lyrics, however, may go back a few hundred years before that, however, and have an unknown author. Likewise, a 13th Century Finnish carol was revamped for Christmas by John Neale and Thomas Helmore in 1853: “Good King Wenceslas.” At least these two I know (and have sung – poorly).
In case you are wondering, the most popular Christmas carol is “Jingle Bells,” written in Massachusetts by James Pierpont (1850). The song was written to commemorate the annual sleigh races. A close second in popularity (and, actually, first on some folks’ lists) is “Silent Night” - a German penned 1816 classic. Interestingly, one of the most popular Christmas songs was written for commercial purposes: “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Rudolph, of course, was a creation of the Montgomery Ward promotion which gave away 2.4 million copies of the popular story about a nose-abled reindeer that saves Christmas in 1939.
As for me, I like to mix it up and have no actual “favorite,” but I do enjoy “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and Manheim Steamrollers’s version of “Carol of the Bells,” and I like the classic poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” too. But most of all, I like Christmas Eve on my porch; when the town is quiet and still and nothing but the traffic lights flash their regular changes; and peace, for a little bit, can be had.
Merry Christmas folks!
