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The Hymns and Carols
of Christmas!

Christmas carols and hymns are one aspect of the holiday season that never fail to lift the spirits — and require no baking, no tree stands, and no extension cords. While there is a body of well-known Christmas songs that are perennial favorites, there are many more which have slipped into obscurity.

The purpose of this site is to preserve the rich history of Christmas carols and hymns that might otherwise be lost. My reasons for doing so are very similar to the feelings expressed by the early 19th century collector Davies Gilbert. In the Preface to his landmark 1822 edition Some Ancient Christmas Carols, he wrote:

The Editor is desirous of preserving them in their actual forms ...  as specimens of times now passed away, and of religious feelings.... He is anxious also to preserve them on account of the delight they afforded him in his childhood, when the festivities of Christmas Eve were anticipated by many days of preparation, and prolonged through several weeks by repetitions and remembrances.

This web site is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  Here, the celebration of the Christmas-tide does not mysteriously end at 6 p.m. on Christmas Day. Rather, you can celebrate the entire 12 days of Christmas — or even the 40 days of Christmas ending with the Candlemas on February 2^nd. Indeed, here you can celebrate the music and spirit of Christmas all year round.

There is no additional content that requires creation of an account or payment of a fee; all content is free.

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Merry Christmas!

Douglas D. Anderson

Celebrate!
150 years of "Silent Night, Holy Night"

Semper Ferians
(Always Keeping Holiday)
The motto of George Ferrers of Lincoln's Inn,
Master of the King's Pastimes, 1551-2
Source: William Sandys, Christmas-tide,
London: John Russell Smith, ca. 1852

"'Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing his hands again.
'Mankind was my business.
The common welfare was my business;
charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business.
The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water
in the comprehensive ocean of my business!'"
- Jacob Marley

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.
The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.
I will not shut out the lessons that they teach."
- Ebenezer Scrooge

-- A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. 1843

-- Dr. Seuss, How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Charlie Brown:
Isn't there anybody who knows what Christmas is all about?

Linus:
"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field,
keeping watch over their flocks by night ....

Charles Schultz, A Charlie Brown Christmas

The Biblical Accounts of The Birth of Christ

"Religious songs are proper expressions of thankful praise."
From Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 33

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