christmas carols

what is your favourite carol??

mine- in the bleak mid winter!

I like that one too Dawn. I like most of them.
My all time favourite is Once in Royal David's City

I miss not having anyone in School to go to the Carol concerts.

I think my favourite (or one of them) is 'I heard the bells on Christmas day, their old familiar carols play'.

I love Mary Did you Know by Mark Lowry and New Star Shining.

I enjoy many, but my all time fav is Mary's Boy Child, as performed by Boney M.

There are so many! But rather than pick one, let me tell you favorite Christmas carol memory. When I was a junior and senior in high school, I directed the handbell choir at my church. My church had a big musical dinner that the choir put on (and which I was also in), so we arranged for us bell players to play Christmas music on the bells as people were going on. We had six songs that we just repeated. I can't think of the fifth. I know that I borrowed music from a book that had Silent Night, Joy to the World, and O, Come, All Ye Faithful. I also arranged What Child Is This, Jingle Bells, and one other that I can't think of right now. Usually I had to arrange all our music because most churches had a minimum of three octaves of bells, but we had just two, so most music didn't fit our size. So I would arrange the music to add in extra flourishes here and there and make it a lot of fun. When it came to Jingle Bells, the only "secular" song we did, I just made each note be a long stack of chords. So at least 6 bells would be playing with each note. It made the song sound really full. And then we tried different techniques. If you put your gloved finger against the bell (you have to wear gloves because the oils in the hands can corrode the bells and change their tone), it made a plunk, plunk sound. So after playing it through solid once, we plunked the song. Then, I put a ton of padding on the tables where we set our bells, and we played the bells by hitting them against the padding on the table. It gave a really unique tone to it. And then, one of our junior high school students who had more energy than he knew what to do with started jumping up and down to the music. So soon, all 7 of us were jumping up and down playing Jingle Bells. We got a lot of applause when we finished! THey really enjoyed our youthful exhuberance.

I'm sorry for stealing the thread, but I also have to tell my very favorite handbell story. We were to play at the mother daugther tea and were told to have two songs and maybe an encore. So we decided to be sure to get encored and planted people in the audience to call for one! I told them that we were working on a song but weren't fully ready for it, and they needed to bear with us as we got our bells straightened out. The junior high boy who led in jumping is extremely talented musically, and he is quite a ham, so we put all the unused bells in front of him, and he made it look like he was playing all of them, frantically trying to figure out which bell to pick up next. It was so cute.

So we started playing. . . Chopsticks! It was a resounding success! It was so fun, and the part of the song that isn't most commonly heard was actually really cute, especially on the bells. What fun!

I have to divide from Carols and songs.
I named my favourite carols.

I dont like most of the Christmas pop songs but I have always loved.
"Wish it could be Christmas Everyday". Its 70s....
And there is a great song...not exactly Christmas, but really fine, called "The gift". Its written by Jim Brickman.
Its on Youtube...

We also always play The Osmonds Christmas Album on Christmas Day.
Some of them are good friends of mine and my kids grew up with hearing it.
Its 1976 so we have heard it a few time... But it has carols on it as well as songs.

The thing I miss about Christmas is, getting out and seeing the lights and hearing the music.
Going to a Carol Service/Midnight Mass.
And my Mum and Dad.
My Dad died at Christmas, and my mum loved it.
It isnt the same....

P

Forgot. Oh Holy Night. First time I heard this was at the Tower of London.
We used to go there for the Christmas morning service.

Great song..

pen

Ave Maria and Oh Holy Night.

Chris

Nice one-O Holy Night
Kooky one-Dominic the Donkey
Cindy

Dominic the Donkey????

That's a new one on me....

Care to sing a few bars???

Enjoy!

Ha!!! Where did you find him???

"Birthday of A King"

http://www.worldofchristmas.net/christmas-carols/birthday-of-a-king.html

That was the silliest Christmas carol I've ever heard! Too funny! I'll have to show that to my students when they come over to help with the pre-Christmas celebrations (tree trimming, candy making, movie watching) on Saturday! Although we don't have any Italians, I think they'll all get a kick out of it!

The First Noel

Joy To The World

Hark, The Harold Angels Sing

For secular songs, my favorite is Sleigh Ride.

Pen, It was on Youtube, but my daughter posted it for me. She was trying to show me how to do it, but I am hopeless at some technology. My brain doesnt work that way! My daughters and my husband have shown me how to cut and paste, but I can never do it when I am alone. Oh well, I am good at other things. Going to bake some gluten free molasses cookies now. I can bake with migraine unless it is a doozy. It is only moderate today.

Vicki, I am glad you enoyed it. I heard a survey on the radio the other day asking which carol they wanted to hear most and Dominic won! I didnt know so many people were familiar with it.
Hugs,
Cindy