Cheryl’s
Five Favorite Christmas Carols
By Cheryl C.
Malandrinos
Perhaps
you’ve heard the story of how Little
Shepherd came to be. If not, here’s the condensed version. Each night when
I sang “The Little Drummer Boy” to my daughter as a lullaby, I would get this
picture of a shepherd in the hills outside Bethlehem on the night of Christ’s
birth. He simply wouldn’t go away until I wrote his story.
Since
a Christmas carol inspired my first book, I figured I would share five of my
favorite Christmas carols with you.
“O Holy Night”
John
Sullivan Dwight, editor of Dwight’s
Journal of Music, translated Placide Cappeau's Cantique de Noël into the singing version we know today. On
Christmas Eve in 1906, Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden made history when
he transmitted the first radio broadcast, which was of him playing “O Holy
Night” on the violin.
A member of the choir from the Catholic church
I attended as a child would sing Dwight’s version in French each year at
midnight mass. I’ve never been able to find it online, but my mother sang this
song in both languages. Hearing it brings back fond memories.
“Mary, Did You Know?”
Many songs of Christmas talk about the Christ
Child, the angels, the wise men, or the shepherds. Mark Lowry’s “Mary, Did You
Know?” posed a series of questions he wanted to ask Jesus’ mother. Buddy Greene
wrote the music for this song, which was first recorded by Michael English in
1991.
As a mother and a Christian, I am drawn to
this song. We cannot foresee what mark our children will leave on the world,
but Mary knew from the very beginning that the child she carried would be
special. The story of Jesus in the temple at the age of 12 indicates Mary did
not have a full understanding of why Jesus came down from heaven, and I doubt
she could have imagined how much He would suffer, but she was a true humble
servant of the Lord.
“Go, Tell It on the Mountain”
Several versions of this song exist. The
original is believed to date back to 1865, when the song was sung among
African-American slaves. “Go, Tell It on the Mountain” was first published in
1907 in Folk Songs of the American Negro by John Wesley Work, Jr.
This is another one of those carols I would
sing to my oldest daughter from the time she born. She was probably about five
when she walked over to the neighbor’s house, rang the doorbell, and started
belting out this song at the top of her lungs. Aw, sweet memories.
“It Came Upon A Midnight Clear”
I love this carol, and yet, I confuse the
lyrics all the time. Mixing up the verses doesn’t exactly provide the same
effect. After the first stanza, I never know if I’m singing it right.
This five-stanza poem was written by Edmund
Hamilton Sears while he was the pastor of the Unitarian Church in Wayland,
Massachusetts. The lyrics appeared in the Christian
Register in 1849, but a decade would pass before composer Richard Storrs Willis created the melody for it.
“We
Three Kings of Orient Are”
I didn’t fully appreciate this carol until I
was an adult. I don’t remember singing all the verses in church when I was a
child, so perhaps that was part of it. The music
and lyrics of this carol were written by Rev. John Henry Hopkins Jr. in 1857
for a Christmas pageant at the General Theological Seminary where he taught
music. In 1863, he published the carol in his book Carols, Hymns and Song.
What I find so powerful about this carol is how it
connects Christmas and Easter. The song begins with the Magi’s journey to find
the newborn King, and throughout it the listener hears and learns the
significance of the gifts these wise men bring. The tone of the song takes a
somber turn in the fourth stanza when Balthazar sings of his gift: myrrh. This
was an expensive spice used to make perfume, medicine, or to anoint the dead.
The rest of this stanza speaks of the suffering of Jesus, His death, and
burial. The final stanza of the song celebrates the glorious Resurrection of
Christ, calling Him, “King and God and Sacrifice!”
My thanks to Abi for hosting me today. I hope you will
all share some of your favorite Christmas carols with me.
About the book:
Watch the trailer
About the author:
Cheryl Malandrinos is a
freelance writer, children’s author and editor. Her first children’s book, Little
Shepherd, was released in August 2010 by
Guardian Angel Publishing. She is a member of the SCBWI, a book reviewer,
and blogger. Cheryl also writes under the name of C. C. Gevry. Ms. Malandrinos
lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband and two children. She also has
a son who is married.
Visit
Cheryl online at http://ccmalandrinos.com
and the Little Shepherd book blog at http://littleshepherdchildrensbook.blogspot.com/.
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1 comment:
Thanks for hosting me today, Abi. It's always a pleasure to visit your blog. I hope everyone enjoys the history behind my favorite Christmas carols.
Good luck to all who enter the giveaway. Best wishes for a blessed Thanksgiving.
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