Carolling away

In my previous entry (below), I mentioned the lack of carol singing. I must admit, however, that there are some carols I dislike. Take Once in royal David's city which, to me, goes on rather with six verses. And then with lines like:


Christian children all should be,
Mild, obedient, good as He.


- my reaction inside is "yuk!" Sorry if that offends anyone.


It ends with:


When like stars His children crowned,
All in white shall be around.

- my reaction is these are the last two things you do with children - dress them in white (because they'll get filthy immediately) and then get them to "wait around"; I can hear the "I'm bored" protests getting louder by the second!

Then there's another stalwart, The first nowell. Again, it goes on rather with six verses (although there was at least nine originally). But it says, concerning the shepherds:


They looked up and saw a star
Shining in the east, beyond them far;

- no they didn't! The angels appeared to them (as the first verse says) and the magi followed the star (as the third verse says). When our carols actually get the story wrong, I tend to shy away from choosing them!

And, by the way, why is noel spelt nowell only in this carol?

And then, Away in a manger (attributed to Martin Luther) tells us that the baby Jesus wakes up but "no crying he makes". Why not? In my experience all healthy babies cry! And Scripture says that Jesus was like us in every way, except that he didn't sin. And I don't rate a baby crying as sin!



Well, that's my commentary on some Christmas carols. But they are great tunes and somehow they make Christmas. So, next year, let's hear them all again (but if we can cut down the verses of the six plus ones, I would appreciate it!).