O Christmas, Merry Christmas!

Words: Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879)

Music: Myles B. Foster
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF / XML

Carol 334, Rev. Charles Lewis Hutchins, Carols Old and Carols New
(Boston: Parish Choir, 1916)

1. O Christmas, merry Christmas!
Is it really come again
With its memories and greetings,
With its joy and with its pain.
There’s a minor in the carol,
And a shadow in the light,
And a spray of cypress twining
With the holly wreath tonight.
And the hush is never broken
By laughter, light and low,
As we listen in the starlight
To the bells, the bells,
The bells across the snow.

2. O Christmas, merry Christmas!
‘Tis not so very long
Since other voices blended
With the carol and the song.
If we could but hear them singing
As they are singing now,
If we could but see the radiance
Of the crown on each dear brow;
There would be no sigh to smoother,
No hidden tear to flow,
As we listen in the starlight
To the bells across the snow!

3. O Christmas, merry Christmas;
This never more can be;
We cannot bring again the days
Of our unshadowed glee.
But Christmas, happy Christmas,
Sweet herald of good will,
With holy songs of glory
Brings holy gladness still.
For peace and hope may brighten,
And patient love may glow,
As we listen in the starlight
To the bells across the snow.

Sheet Music from Charles L. Hutchins, Carols Old and Carols New (Boston: Parish Choir, 1916)

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