Christmas Carols - Favourites

1) "It came upon the midnight clear","See amid the winter snow"-probably because they are not heard so often and have a thought-provoking message.

2) Any of the wonderful Sheffield carols, now sung in the pubs as the Victorian clergy barred them from church as too rousing!

3) A German carol with the refrain (in English!) "Up,up,up"

4) Lastly my all time favourite, I recorded this from Capital radio in the 80s, London kids singing about Mayree and her baybee, the journey made er weereey. Aww, lovely!

I love carols. In The Bleak Midwinter, The Cherry Tree Carol, Silent Night, The Coventry Carol, O Come O Come Emmanuel... Impossible to pick a favourite. I have been Pagan for more than 30 years but carols still go straight to my heart.

I can't hear children singing carols without feeling the tears start. My 9 year old granddaughter was recently singing one she was learning at school, It Was On A Starry Night, and I immediately had a lump in my throat.

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youtu.be/ilO75EUExTU

I listen to this many nights before going to sleep.
It's beautiful.

Should add it's Andrea Bocelli
Cantique de Noel/O Holy Night
a totally different version sung in French

Has to be Silent Night, both the English and German versions.

Bob Chilcott’s “The Shepherd’s Carol”. Sublime.

Adeste Fidelis .....sung with gusto! Even if not much musicality.

Once in Royal David’s City for me too, then Ding Dong Merrily on High and The Holly Bears a Berry. There’s so many lovely carols, hard to choose.

I've loved It Came Upon The Midnight Clear ever since I was at school. Other favourites are Oh Holy Night, The Coventry Carol and Veni Veni Emmanuel (Preferably sung by Friar Alessandro)

It’s not a carol as such, but one line of ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ strikes me as somewhat tearily poignant now that we older generation are all getting on a bit, and a BiL has cancer:
‘Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow…’.

I never knew the words until our group piano teacher gave us a lovely version to play a few years ago - it’s a favourite now.

Us oldies mostly will all be together tomorrow night. ??? Only one missing will be DSis in the US.

I love ‘It came upon a midnight clear’ and ‘Three kings from Persian lands afar’. We sang that in our school choir and it sounded magical. We were lucky enough to have a choirboy of the year contestant in our choir and he sang the opening lines. Even as a 14 year old it sent shivers down my spine, absolutely beautiful.

At school we used to sing "It was the winter wild, When the heav'n born child..." I love it, but have never herd that version anywhere else.

I love them all. My favourite would have to be The Coventry Carol, followed by In the Bleak Midwinter and O Come, O Come Emmanuel. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen takes me back to my childhood

Singing in our Hospital Choir, the annual service in York Minster, the opening Once in Royal David’s city, sung by a young soprano up in the rafters was the most beautiful sound. Still gives me tingles when I hear that Carol today.