Best Loved Christmas Carols, Readings and Poetry

I can best afford –

No pipers, piping,

No leaping lord,

But a fine fat hen

For his Christmas board;

Two pretty daughters

(Versed in the role)

To be worn like pinks

In his buttonhole;

And the tree of my heart

With its calling linnet,

My evergreen heart

And the bright bird in it.

Phyllis McGinley (1905–78)

All the Days of Christmas © 1958 by Phyllis McGinley. First appeared in MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY NEW YEAR, published by Viking Press. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

Angels, from the realms of glory (#ulink_426cbbd1-abfc-5b06-bf50-2d945a8edf2d)

James Montgomery was born into a peasant family in Ayrshire and, having abandoned his studies for the ministry, pursued a career as a poet. He became the author of over 400 hymns and carols. These lines first appeared in The Sheffield Iris, a journal for which Montgomery was editor, on Christmas Eve 1816. They are usually sung to the tune of the French ‘Les anges dans nos campagnes’, which is also used for another familiar carol, ‘Angels we have heard on high’.

Angels, from the realms of glory,

Wing your flight o’er all the earth;

Ye who sang Creation’s story

Now proclaim Messiah’s birth!

Come and worship Christ the new-born King!

Come and worship, worship Christ the new-born King!

Shepherds, in the field abiding,

Watching o’er your flocks by night:

God with man is now residing,

Yonder shines the Infant Light.

Come and worship Christ the new-born King!

Come and worship, worship Christ the new-born King!

Sages, leave your contemplations:

Brighter visions beam afar.

Seek the Great Desire of Nations:

Ye have seen his natal star.

Come and worship Christ the new-born King!

Come and worship, worship Christ the new-born King!

Saints, before the altar bending,

Watching long in hope and fear:

Suddenly the Lord, descending,

In his temple shall appear.

Come and worship Christ the new-born King!

Come and worship, worship Christ the new-born King!

Though an infant now we view him,

He shall fill his Father’s throne,

Gather all the nations to him;

Every knee shall then bow down.

Come and worship Christ the new-born King!

Come and worship, worship Christ the new-born King!

James Montgomery (1771–1854)

Angels we have heard on high (#ulink_088eff0f-dcb9-56c7-b3f5-fc6353ac7466)

This carol is French in origin, having been translated from the French ‘Les anges dans nos campagnes’ by Bishop James Chadwick and first published in 1860. By then it was already an established favourite in France and Quebec. Tradition has it that in the second century Pope Telesphorus ordained that all the faithful should sing the words ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo’ at Christmas, hence its inclusion as a refrain here.