Most older people know the standard carols because we sang them in school and church. All the verses, even the depressing ones, none of that first and last only, at least for the Lutherans. It takes a good while to work through "Oh, Come Emmanuel."
My ukulele group will soldier through just about anything, but we petered out halfway through that one last week.
The
Victorians gave us our familiar Christmas music. For that matter, the
Victorians gave us just about all our Christmas traditions, thanks to the family-oriented Victoria and Albert, and Dickens, in A Christmas Carol. Before then, they say Christmas hymns were pretty dull, and Harvest was the big church festival in early winter.
The breakthrough in Christmas music came to England from Finland in
1853, when James Mason Neale wrote new lyrics to a medieval spring carol
and called it Good King Wenceslas.
Along with an excellent tune, the carol has a good legend. "King" Wenceslas braved harsh weather on the second day of Christmas (December 26th) to give alms to a poor peasant. When his page is about to give up the struggle, he continues on by walking in the melted footprints of the saint.
Charity, leadership, bravery, generosity, faith, trust, and other good Christmassy things, packed in one carol.
The "Velvet Fog" made an excellent recording, jazzy and smooth as silk.
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