What’s your favourite Christmas carol?
That instant the organ strikes a chord, the choir sings out in harmony and the congregation joins the swell of worship and praise to the new born babe.
Carols are a joyful part of many of our Christmas celebrations.
Every year churches big and small hold carol services to sing our favourites together, and this year some wonderful churches have been organising Carols by Candlelight services to support our Christmas Appeal. Thank you for helping to light the way for people fleeing conflict.
We asked our supporters up and down the country to tell us what their favourite carol is, and why. Most struggled to pick just one!
Here are a few of their choices, but we’d love to hear yours too.
It Came Upon The Midnight Clear
Marian worships at St James the Great Church in Colwall, Herefordshire (where she is also the organiser for the Malvern Christian Aid group).
Number one on my list would be ‘It Came Upon the Midnight Clear’. Verses two and three seem to sum up our world’s condition: ‘weary’, ‘sad’, ‘lonely’, then comes that wonderful plea/command:
O hush your noise ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing!
If only people would listen…
Away In A Manger
From St Mary’s Church in Greasley, Nottinghamshire, Janet chooses ‘Away in a Manger’, for its very simple and plain message.
This is probably, on the face of it, a young child’s carol chosen by an old lady and maybe not appropriate. However, I have been involved in so many infant nativity plays over the years and have played it so often to audiences of parents.
Every time a very special feeling has come over the hall, especially when we acquired a sound tape of a baby crying to go with it despite the line -
No crying he makes.
In The Bleak Midwinter
Suzanne is from St Dorothea’s parish in Gilnahirk, Northern Island and chooses ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’. The words are a challenge to us all.
This melancholy carol invites us to offer our own gifts to Jesus just as the Shepherds and Wise Men did:
What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
if I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
yet what I can I give him: give my heart.
In Dulci Jubilo
Paul worships at Chapel Field Road Methodist Church in Norwich. His favourite carol is ‘In Dulci Jubilo’.
This carol takes me back to snowy Christmasses when I was a boy in Cambridge.
On Christmas Eve my father would take my brother and me to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in King’s College Chapel.
Dressed in our warmest coats, scarves and gloves we joined the seemingly endless queue by 9am; any later and we wouldn’t get in. A flask of tea and sandwiches kept us going till we were finally admitted to the relative warmth of the candle-lit Chapel at 2pm.
An hour still before the service began; time to take in the shadowy stone vaulting high above and the majestic organ. Then, just after 3pm came the pure treble of a chorister singing ‘Once in Royal David’s city’, it seemed like magic.
But my spell-binding moment still comes when I’m listening to the radio and the choir sings ‘In Dulci Jubilo’, with its repeated
O that we were there!
which drifts into silence in the dusk.
It Came Upon The Midnight Clear
Rachel is joint Chair of the Christian Aid group in Fareham, where she attends St John the Evangelist Church. She was another to choose ‘It Came Upon The Midnight Clear’.
There is so much in this carol that is relevant for today and so much that connects the world now with the Christmas story of 2000 years ago.
There is still, as there was then, political tension, war and strife. The angels are still proclaiming the good news — if only we would stop and listen! We still need to hear the cry of the prophets from long ago — their message is still so current!
God still comes to us now — God incarnate is not a thing of the past, it is now! Each Christmas we can celebrate afresh the coming of God in Jesus.
We live in the prophetic present — we anticipate what is coming — the birth of Christ — and yet He has already been born, He is already here! Wow!
Light the way this Christmas
As we sing our carols and give praise to the Christ-child this Christmas, 65 million people are far from home, seeking safety and refuge.
Please give what you can to our Christmas Appeal and help light the way.
