Why Do Bells For Christmas Ring?

Original Title: "Christmas Song"

Words: Lydia Avery Coonley (1845 - 1924), 1897;
on March 18, 1897, she married naturalist Henry Augustus Ward
after which her name became Lydia Avery Coonley Ward.

Erroneously credited to Eugene Field in the first edition of "The Posy Field," but corrected in subsequent editions.

Music by Frederic W. Root

Illustrations by Alice Kellogg Tyler

Source: Singing Verses for Children (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1897);
the poem was published on p. 78 and the song was printed on p. 79.

Why do bells for Christmas ring?
Why do little children sing?

Once a lovely, shining star,
Seen by shepherds from afar,
Gently moved until its light
Made a manager-cradle bright.

There a darling baby lay
Pillowed soft upon the hay.
And his mother sang and smiled,
"This is Christ, the holy child."

So the bells for Christmas ring,
So the little children sing.

Poem

Sheet Music

Title Page

Editor's Note:

The text to this song may change slightly depending on the arrangement. For example:

1 Why do bells for Christmas ring?
Why do little children sing?
Why do little children sing?

2 Once a lovely, shining star,
Seen by shepherds from afar,
Gently moved until its light
Made a manager-cradle bright.

3 There a darling baby lay
Pillowed soft upon the hay.
And his mother sang and smiled,
"This is Christ, the holy child."

4 Therefore bells at Christmas ring,
Therefore little children sing,
Therefore little children sing.

Sheet Music for arrangement by Maltbie D. Babcock from Hymns and Carols (1903), #13, pp. 20-21.

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