Christmas resources
The Christmas season is musically both rich and broad. Our services attract people from beyond our normal congregations. They generally come expecting to sing the familiar carols but also happy to hear our choir or music-group sing to them. Just as the church welcomes the Christ child, so we, the church, welcome our visitors and guests by engaging their expectations, then going "above and beyond".
Yet in our tradtional churches, we can struggle with material, sometimes falling back on "the same old, same old", but stretching our resources with over-ambition, and forgetting "simple can be good". Or in modern churches, we are so keen on our modern songs that we forget the inherited carols for which our visitors yearn.
The material here covers a wide range of styles to enrich and enliven your Christmas services, starting from where you are. Heavy-metal band? "God rest ye merry, gentlemen". Competent choir? "Visit of the Wise Men". Small, men-depleted choir? "The Angel Gabriel".
The texts are by a variety of authors. Several of these are under other copyright, and their owners have kindly agreed for their material to be available here. In such cases the PDF link is an intermediate stepping-stone which asks you to note, accept and abide by their copyright.
| Text | Score | Audio | Example | Occasions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Congregational: traditional texts and tunes re-arranged | |||||
| Angels from the realms of glory | MIDI | Christmas | Traditional tune, recast in a lively 4/4 or 12/8 music-group setting. Optional backing vocals. | ||
| Come, thou Redeemer of the earth | Advent, Christmas | Straightforward SATB version with optional choral Amen. | |||
| Come, thou Redeemer of the earth | Advent, Christmas | A through-composed processional arrangement, incorporating SATB version (above). | |||
| God rest you merry, gentlemen | Christmas | Music-group arrangement: lively, with backing vocals (descants). | |||
| In the bleak midwinter (Cranham) | MIDI | Christmas, Epiphany | Music-group arrangement; optional backing vocals and clarinet part. | ||
| It came upon the midnight clear | MIDI | Christmas | Music-group arrangement; optional backing vocals. | ||
| On Christmas night all Christians sing (Sussex carol) | MIDI | Christmas | Music-group arrangement; backing vocals. Text carefully made inclusive. | ||
| The first Nowell | MIDI | Christmas | Music-group arrangement; backing vocals; optional solo instrument (e.g. flute). | ||
| Congregational: new tunes and (mostly) new texts | |||||
|
Behold! The night is dark (Advent Journey)
(Kate Bluett) |
Advent | ||||
|
Child of joy and peace
(Shirley Erena Murray) |
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|
Choirs of angels, tell abroad
(Timothy Dudley-Smith) |
Christmas | ||||
|
Come now with awe
(Timothy Dudley-Smith) |
Christmas, Epiphany | Written because a suggested Finlandia pairing seems unconvincing. There is also a choir setting of this text to a different tune. | |||
|
Come, thou long-expected Jesus
(Charles Wesley) |
Advent, general. | Tune: Hill Meadows published in Wesley Music for the Millennium[1]. A brighter, more positive, tune than the more usual Cross of Jesus. | |||
|
Earth was waiting, spent and restless
(Walter Chalmers Smith) |
Advent, Christmas, Candlemas. |
Tune: Travail.
An unusually dark Christmas text;
a useful antidote to some simplistic saccharine carols.
Published: Sing a New Song, MWF, 2008. |
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|
Here is the centre
(Timothy Dudley-Smith) |
Christmas, Epiphany | ||||
|
In our darkness light has shone, Alleluia!
(Timothy Dudley-Smith) |
Christmas | Optional descant. | |||
|
Mark how the stars
(John Bennett) |
Christmas | ||||
|
Soft the evening shadows fall
(Timothy Dudley-Smith) |
MIDI | Christmas | Optional double descants. Published: The Carol Book[2]. | ||
|
The light of glory breaks
(Timothy Dudley-Smith) |
PDF (tune 1) (tune 2) |
|
Christmas | ||
|
Though no one can say when it's coming (Already drawing near)
(Kate Bluett) |
Advent, Eucharist | ||||
|
We see the eyes of Mary shine
(Andrew Pratt) |
Christmas. | Published: More than Hymns[3]. | |||
| For choirs or music-groups (generally non-congregational) | |||||
| Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel Benedictus (Luke 1:68–79) | Christmas, Epiphany, other | Anglican chant style. Published: Cantica Nova 2[4]. | |||
| Come my Light (David Lee, from St. Dimitrii, Rostov) | Advent, Pentecost, intercessions | Simple SATB | |||
|
Come now with awe
(Timothy Dudley-Smith) |
Christmas, Epiphany | Unison or 2–part. Organ (no pedal) or piano. There is also a congregational setting of this text to a different tune. | |||
| Gaudete! gaudete! Christus est natus |
PDF (SATB) (SA+Men) |
(SATB)
(SA+Men) |
Christmas | Arrangement: lively, simple, unaccompanied. | |
| Good Christians all, rejoice (In dulci jubilo) | Christmas | Arrangement: lively, simple SAB unaccompanied | |||
| He took on himself our infirmities (Isaiah 53:4–5) | MIDI | Christmas, Passiontide, Communion | Very short, very simple, SATB. Written for a Christmas service as a reflective interlude between the John reading ("In the beginning…") and the final carol ("Hark! the herald angels sing"). | ||
| Christmas midnight
(Mark how the stars)
(John Bennett) |
Christmas, Epiphany | Unaccompanied SATB | |||
| The Angel Gabriel | Christmas | Arrangement: simple, SAB unaccompanied | |||
| Visit of the Wise Men
(Take, O Child, the gift that I bring)
(Timothy Dudley-Smith) |
MIDI | Christmas, Epiphany | The dark side of Christmas. SATB and 2 soloists. | ||
|
When I come in the guise
(Kenneth Carveley) |
MIDI | Advent; social concern | Simple, unison. | ||