Category: A Carol a Day

WHILE Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night is one of the most enduring and popular carols, and probably one of the most parodied. I am going to get my schoolgirl … Continue readingWhile Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night

NO carol concert is complete without a rousing rendition of O Come All Ye Faithful. There are many theories about its origins but I am going to give an intriguing … Continue readingO Come All Ye Faithful

THERE are several unusual aspects to We Three Kings of Orient Are. It was something of a one-hit wonder, as none of the writer’s other works had much success. It … Continue readingWe Three Kings of Orient Are

ONE of the cheeriest carols is I Saw Three Ships. It was first published in 1833 but had been around for centuries before that. Presumably it is because it is … Continue readingI Saw Three Ships

BEFORE I started writing this series, I had no idea that many of our favourite carols originated in the United States. Following O Little Town of Bethlehem, Away in a … Continue readingIt Came Upon the Midnight Clear

AT the start of Charles Dickens’s 1843 A Christmas Carol, we see Ebenezer Scrooge in his counting house on Christmas Eve. His nephew calls to ask him to lunch the … Continue readingGod rest you merry, gentlemen

THE words to this carol were written by an American Episcopal clergyman, Phillips Brooks, who was born in Boston in 1825 and educated at Harvard. For many years he was … Continue readingO little town of Bethlehem

AS requested by TCW reader Charles Dawne, today’s choice is the Coventry Carol. Mr Dawne describes it as ‘haunting’ and I agree. It is a long way from the joyful … Continue readingThe Coventry Carol

I HAVE always thought that Good King Wenceslas was about a benevolent old gent trying to spread a little happiness. Wrong. According to the Guardian ‘it glorifies a patriarchal definition … Continue readingGood King Wenceslas

AMONG TCW’s well-informed, thoughtful and witty readers are some in America. Take a bow, Audre Myers, and the rest of you. I have chosen today’s carol in your honour as … Continue readingJoy to the World