Most Famous "Catholic" Christmas Songs

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Whilst I love many carols, O Holy Night would be one of my absolute favourites…
 
I love so many of the Christmas carols and Joy to the World is one of my many favourites: youtube.com/watch?v=OjnLuPW5Xcg

O Come all ye Faithful is a must of course (this is a gentle and beautiful Latin and English version from the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles): youtube.com/watch?v=fw_k90thRIA

O Holy Night: youtube.com/watch?v=OX8NkTERktI

In dulci jubilo: youtube.com/watch?v=Ey4UvJTADyM

At home, I will be singing and dancing to this new version of Angels we Have Heard on High: youtube.com/watch?v=ubKa2EmONos

PS. Please don’t tell my Parish Priest I am listening to Christmas Carols in November. He gently tells me every year that we are not having Christmas Carols until Christmas Eve mass and that we are supposed to be an Easter people.
 
Bruised_Reed said:
Adeste Fidelis. The altar rail at a church I used to go to for First Fridays had VENITE ADOREMUS as part of the metal work. I knew what the Latin meant but seeing it on an altar rail with Jesus in the monstrance behind it, the full meaning hit me like a ton of bricks. Now I get emotional at the chorus and it’s sort of embarrassing.
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Oh, I can so see this in my mind!!! Wish I could see it for real!!!
 
Of course, I love Carol of the Bells! It was originally a Ukaninian folk song. There are two versions of lyrics and I like both. (The other version may be called Hark Christmas Bells.) Sometimes a singer will incorporate both lyrics and that gives the song a fuller meaning. One of the things I like about this song is the way it builds in emotional feeling. I love, love, love to hear carolers sing this with four part harmony and hand bells.

I go to Knott’s “Merry” Farm every holiday season, partly because I was so impressed the first few years at hearing the song I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day song in their holiday “Saloon Show”. It is very impressive to go to a theme park and hear someone singing these words, “God is not dead, nor does he sleep,” and the man who sang it had so much conviction and emotion in his voice. After that it became one of my favorites.

Likewise, hearing carolers and live performances of O Holy Night has emotional effects on me. Knott’s uses it in their ice show and it is such a beautiful scene. It is so wonderful to go out to a public place and hear that song performed, in particular the part that begins, “fall on your knees.” That song can make me well up with emotion.

I love Ding Dong, Merrily on High and Lo, How a Rose E’vr Blooming. The second is a favorite to sing, even though difficult.

My favorite Advent songs are O Come, O Come Emmanuel and People Look East. The lyrics to People Look East are so similar to what we are doing in Advent in preparation for Christmas.
 
Many of my favorites have already been mentioned.

I didn’t see We Three Kings. Rarely do I hear all the versus.
 
CAROLOFTHEBELLS said:
I go to Knott’s “Merry” Farm every holiday season, partly because I was so impressed the first few years at hearing the song I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day song in their holiday “Saloon Show”. It is very impressive to go to a theme park and hear someone singing these words, “God is not dead, nor does he sleep,” and the man who sang it had so much conviction and emotion in his voice. After that it became one of my favorites.

Likewise, hearing carolers and live performances of O Holy Night has emotional effects on me. Knott’s uses it in their ice show and it is such a beautiful scene. It is so wonderful to go out to a public place and hear that song performed, in particular the part that begins, “fall on your knees.” That song can make me well up with emotion.
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Very true! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the whole world woke up and started singing Christmas Carols with gusto and love. We would all “fall on our knees” and know that “God is not dead, nor does He sleep!!!” I’d love it…
 
adrift said:
Many of my favorites have already been mentioned.

I didn’t see We Three Kings. Rarely do I hear all the versus.
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Possibly because the Third King’s (Balthasar?) verse is a bit of a downer:
Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Speaks a life of gathering gloom:
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone cold tomb.
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It’s the same with “What Child Is This?” I see it often in the hymnals, but even when including all the verses, they sometimes put the second part of the first verse in as a refrain or chorus:
This, This is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing.
Haste, haste to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
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In actual fact, there is no chorus, each verse has its own “refrain”, and one is a tad less cheery than others. William Chatterton Dix, the lyricist, put these words at the end of verse 2:
Nails, spear shall pierce him through,
The Cross be borne for me, for you;
Hail, hail the Word Made Flesh,
The babe, the son of Mary!
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It may be that whoever is putting out the hymnals or carol sheets may think that those verses are a bit too glum for Christmas.
 
I actually like the verse regarding the myrrh. It is, as was said in a movie about the Nativity, “the most precious, and the most bitter of herbs”. That is because it was used to anoint the body for burial. I think it is significant, but not a “downer” that we be reminded that one of the gifts of the Wise Men was also a foreshadowing of WHY He was born: to die for us!
 
IfYouLeadMe said:
Whilst I love many carols, O Holy Night would be one of my absolute favourites…
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Same here. I think my favorite new (old) one is Puer Natus in Bethlehem. I am going to start teaching it to the children tonight for Christmas Eve, mixing Latin and English. I intend to use it as a lead-in and transition from their singing carols to Mass.
 
Sorry, my favorite of recent times is not a Catholic Christmas Song but it is the kind of song that looks forward from the Holy Nativity to Calvary. “Born to Die” by Shirleen Salyer. The rendition by the National Christian Choir soars with reverence and sorrow.

Joe
 
Growing up in England, Father liked What Child is This? Whenever he heard Greensleeves, it reminded him of What Child is This? What Child is This? was written to the tune of Greensleeves.
 
“Good King Wenceslas.”

St. Wenceslas, who was a good Catholic Duke who helped convert Bohemia, is the patron saint of the Czech Republic.

Cosmas of Prague wrote:
But his deeds I think you know better than I could tell you; for, as is read in his Passion, no one doubts that, rising every night from his noble bed, with bare feet and only one chamberlain, he went around to God’s churches and gave alms generously to widows, orphans, those in prison and afflicted by every difficulty, so much so that he was considered, not a prince, but the father of all the wretched.
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Interestingly, John Mason Neale, who translated the lyrics, was an Anglican but widely considered to be a secret Catholic. (He even got stoned by a mob for it!) He also translated the lyrics to my other favorite carol, “O Come O Come Emmanuel.”
 
Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel is probably my favorite, followed by Oh Holy Night.

They send a chill down my spine followed by a wonderful sense of calm. 😃
 
My favorites are: “Gesu Bambino,” “Hark, The Herald Angels Sing,” and “A Christmas Carol,” by Charles Ives.

I just discovered that one last year. It is very unique and very beautiful, in my opinion. It is a contemporary hymn, from the early 1900’s. He wrote hymns and band music for his time. His father was a band leader.
 
I am having a wonderful advent listening to beautiful advent songs. Here’s what I’ve been doing (you should try it):

Go to Pandora.com

If you don’t have an account, set one up. It’s free music!

Anyway, once you do that, enter in O Come O Come Emmanuel by clicking on New Station.

It is coming up with the most wonderful advent songs! Lots of hymns. Ave Maria is a wonderful during advent. It gets me focusing on that time when we are waiting for Christ to come.
 
Does anyone know the meaning of the lyrics to “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” or the history of the song?
Elizium23 said:
“In the Bleak Midwinter”
“Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”
“Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella”
“Good Christian Men, Rejoice” (In Dulci Jubilo)
“Ding, Dong, Merrily on High”
“The Holly and the Ivy”
“Once in Royal David’s City”
“Creator of the Stars of Night”
“Good King Wenceslas”

These are all from my home parish’s Christmas repertoire, new for this year. It hurts me very much that I will not be with the choir when they sing them. I will be visiting my family in OCP-land.
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NaturalMother said:
Does anyone know the meaning of the lyrics to “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” or the history of the song?
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Well, there are several versions of this song. Wikipedia gives a good summary. It was originally in German, and portrayed Mary as the Rose, with Jesus as a rosebud sprung from Mary. An English translation to this effect is provided in the Wikipedia article, but it is labeled as “literal” and I don’t think it was ever set to music. The Protestants got a hold of it and translated it into English, this time portraying Jesus as the Rose and Mary just an innocent bystander.

So I would say, if you’re planning to perform this song for Christmas at a Catholic church, look into the original German for an authentically Catholic hymn.
 
NaturalMother said:
Does anyone know the meaning of the lyrics to “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” or the history of the song?
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www.familchristmasonline.com mentioned:
As written and sung by German Roman Catholics, the song focused on Mary the mother of Jesus. Roman Catholic authors writing about this song cite the Bible versed from the “Song of Solomon” 2 : 1, I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley.
 
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