Showing posts with label Christmas Songs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas Songs. Show all posts

Sunday, March 20, 2022

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town


We just learned about the Up on the Housetop.

Another famous Christmas song is Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town.

This song was wrirten by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, in 1934.
Many different people have performed this song, but the first recording of it was 1934 by Harry Reser.
Over 200 different musicians have recorded this song, like Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, The Temptations, and Michael Buble.

There are a few lines only in the original song where the singer says he went to visit Santa's workshop and saw his plans.


(from: wikipedia - santa claus is comin' to town)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: First Great Awakening

Sunday, March 13, 2022

Up on the Housetop


We just learned about the Christmas Song Here Comes Santa Claus.

Another famous Christmas song is Up on the Housetop.

This song was writen in America by Benjamin Hanby in 1864.
It is the oldest Christmas song that is about Santa Claus.

This song was written right after the book "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" came out, which told the story about Santa landing up on someone's roof with the reindeer.
So people think that Hanby came up with the idea for his song from the story in the book.


(from: wikipedia - up on the housetop)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Amish

Sunday, March 6, 2022

Here Comes Santa Claus


We just learned about the What Child Is This.

Another famous Christmas song is Here Comes Santa Claus.

This song was written in 1946 by Gene Autry, with the music written by Oakley Haldeman.
Gene Autry was a famous pop and country singer who also did songs about Rudolph and Frosty.

One day when Autry was riding his horse in a Christmas parade in Los Angeles, he heard the kids shouting "Here Comes Santa Claus" and that gave him the idea for the song.
A lot of popular Christmas songs just talk about the snow or gifts and don't talk about God or Jesus.
This song talks about how we are all God's children, so it is different from a lot of other songs because it mentions God.


(from: wikipedia - here comes santa claus)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Salem Witch Trials

Sunday, February 27, 2022

What Child Is This?


We just learned about the Christmas song called The Christmas Song, also known as Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.

Another famous Christmas song is What Child Is This?.

The words for this song were written in Great Britain in 1865 by William Chatterton Dix.
Long ago Chatteron got very sick for a long time and almost died.
While he was recovering he spent most of his time reading the Bible and writing poetry about Jesus.

Six years after he wrote it, someone put the poem to music.
The music for the song comes from an old tune called "Greensleeves", which was a song about a woman who wore a shirt with green sleeves.

In the lyrics for the song, it asks about who the child Jesus, and talks about the shepherds and wise men who came to see the baby Jesus.


(from: wikipedia - what child is this?)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pilgrims

Sunday, February 20, 2022

The Christmas Song


We just learned about the Go Tell It on the Mountain.

Another famous Christmas song is called The Christmas Song, but a lot of people call it Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.

This was written in 1945 by famous song write Robert Wells, and famous singer Mel Tormé.
One year during a hot summer day in July Mel Tormé was over at his friend Robert Well's house and saw a notepad with some song lyrics about Christmas on it.
It was such a hot day he thought maybe if he helped finish the lyrics and wrote the music, just the thoughts of winter time might help him cool off.

The song that most people know on the radio was sung by famous artist Nat King Cole.


(from: wikipedia - the christmas song)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Thirty Years War

Sunday, February 13, 2022

Go Tell It on the Mountain


We just learned about the Christmas song We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Another famous Christmas song is Go Tell It on the Mountain.

This song goes back to around 1865, and was an African American song that was written down in a book by John Wesley.

It tells about going to the mountain to tell everyone about Jesus.


(from: wikipedia - go tell it on the mountain (song))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Puritanism

Sunday, February 6, 2022

We Wish You a Merry Christmas


We just learned about the Christmas carol Deck the Halls.

Another famous Christmas carol is We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

This song was written some time around 1935 by an organist named Arthur Warrell.
When he first wrote it, he used the words "I wish you a merry Christmas" instead of "We wish you a merry Christmas".

One of the funny things is the figgy pudding that people demand before they go.
That is an old dessert that was usually like a sweet cake with honey fruits and nuts.

There were also some funny people who had a different version of the song and had the ending of "New Year" rhyme with "barrel of beer".


(from: wikipedia - we wish you a merry christmas)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: King James Version

Sunday, January 30, 2022

Deck the Halls


We just learned about the Christmas carol Silver Bells.

Another famous Christmas carol is Deck the Halls.

The music for this song is very old, going back to a Welsh song from some time around the 1700s.
That song was mostly someone singing about a beautiful woman that they were in love with, and then singing the same "fah la la la la" part after each verse.

In 1862 a famous Scottish musician named Thomas Oliphant picked new words for the song and made it about Christmas.

Some of the old words for the song talk about drinking mead, so some people have changed those words to talk about singing and Christmas.


(from: wikipedia - deck the halls)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Heliocentrism

Sunday, January 23, 2022

Silver Bells


We just learned about the Christmas song Little Drummer Boy.

Another famous Christmas song is Silver Bells.

This song was written in 1950 by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.
At first it was going to be called tinkle bells, but the wife of one of the song writers thought it sounded funny since tinkle can be another way to say you are going to the bathroom!
So they changed it to Silver Bells.

One of the writers says the idea for the song came from a bell they had on their desk, but others think it came from the people during Christmas time that ring the bells to help collect money for poor people.


(from: wikipedia - silver bells)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Believer's Baptism

Sunday, January 16, 2022

The Little Drummer Boy


We just learned about the Christmas song White Christmas.

Another Christmas song is The Little Drummer Boy.

This song was written in 1941 by Katherine Kennicott Davis in America.

It used to be called "Carol of the Drum" and the writer said she had the idea to write it after hearing a French song called "Patapan".
In the French song the drums go patapan, and in her song they go "pah-rum-pum-pum-pum".

The first people to sing it on a record were the Trapp Family.
The Trapp Family is also sometimes called the Von Trapps, and their family story was the real life inspiration for the movie Sound of Music.

In the Little Drummer Boy song, a little boy comes to see baby Jesus in the manger, and the Magi are giving him really expensive gifts.
The only thing he has is a drum, so he plays a song for baby Jesus and then Mary and Jesus smile at him.


(from: wikipedia - The Little Drummer Boy)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: French Wars of Religion

Sunday, January 9, 2022

White Christmas


We just learned about the Christmas song Jingle Bells.

Another famous Christmas song is White Christmas, written by Irving Berlin in 1940.

Berlin wrote songs and plays, and wrote this song for his play Holiday Inn, about some people falling in love around Christmas time.
When he wrote the song, he called up his secretary and said it was not just the best song he ever wrote, but the best song anybody every wrote.

The actor and singer Bing Crosby was in the film Holiday Inn, and his deep voice singing the song is the most famous version that everyone knows.
During World War II many people were sad about soldiers being in the war during Christmas time.
So in 1942 a lot of people liked this song for Christmas, because of the part that says "Just like the ones I used to know".

Bing Crosby's version of Irving Berlin's song is said to be the most popular song every made, with over 50 million people buying the song.
Even though it is a great and famous song, Crosby said that anybody could have sang it as well as him, and he once said "a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully".


(from: wikipedia - white christmas (song))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Protestant Reformation

Sunday, January 2, 2022

Jingle Bells


We just learned about the Christmas song Frosty the Snowman.

Another famous Christmas song is Jingle Bells, written by James Lord Pierpont in Boston in 1857.

Even though everyone sings this song at Christmas time, there is nothing in the song about Christmas, and some people think it was actually written to be a Thanksgiving song, or even just a fun song for people to sing at parties.

In 1850s when Pierpont wrote it, people used to have a lot of fun riding around on sleighs being pulled by horses, and having races against each other.
When the sleighs would go racing by, the bells would jingle, and sometimes people would sing this song during the races.

In 1965, the astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra went into space and brought a harmonica and sleigh bells, and sang Jingle Bells in space.

Most people only know two of the verses for Jingle Bells, but there are actually 5 verses to the song.

Jingle Bells

Dashing through the snow In a one-horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go Laughing all the way
Bells on bob tail ring Making spirits bright
What fun it is to ride and sing A sleighing song tonight! Oh!

Jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way.
Oh! what fun it is to ride In a one-horse open sleigh. Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way;
Oh! what fun it is to ride In a one-horse open sleigh.

A day or two ago I thought I'd take a ride
And soon, Miss Fanny Bright Was seated by my side,
The horse was lean and lank Misfortune seemed his lot
He got into a drifted bank And then we got upsot.

A day or two ago, The story I must tell
I went out on the snow, And on my back I fell;
A gent was riding by In a one-horse open sleigh,
He laughed as there I sprawling lie, But quickly drove away. Ah!

Now the ground is white Go it while you're young,
Take the girls tonight and sing this sleighing song;
Just get a bobtailed bay Two forty as his speed
Hitch him to an open sleigh And crack! you'll take the lead.


(from: wikipedia - jingle bells)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Sola Fide

Sunday, December 26, 2021

Frosty the Snowman


We just learned about the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Another famous Christmas song is Frosty the Snowman.

This song was written in 1950 by Walter "Jack" Rollins and Steve Nelson, and sung by Gene Autry.
Rollins was also famous for writing the Easter song Here Comes Peter Cottontail.

The writer Steve Nelson lived in the town of Armonk New York, and every year in that town they have a Frosty Day celebration.

(from: wikipedia - frosty the snowman)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Luther Bible

Sunday, December 19, 2021

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer


We just learned about the Christmas song Carol of the Bells.

Another famous Christmas song is Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

In 1939 Robert May wrote a book about Rudolph for the Montgomery Ward shopping store.
The book was so popular that May's brother Johnny Marks wrote a song about it, and then famous singer Gen Autry sang it in 1949 and it became very popular.


(from: wikipedia - rudolph the red-nosed reindeer (song))



Gene Autry with The Pinafores - Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer (Christmas Songs - Yule Log) - Christmas Songs


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Ninety Five Theses

Sunday, December 12, 2021

Carol of the Bells


We just learned about the carol Good King Wenceslas.

Another famous Christmas carol is Carol of the Bells.

This music for this song comes from the Ukraine, and used to be a song about spring time and happy birds.
Long ago in the Ukraine, the new year was in April, so the new year's celebration was in the spring.
When the people of the Ukraine became Christians, they moved the new year's celebration to the winter.
The song about birds in the cold didn't make much sense, so someone wrote this song about Christmas and used the same music.

The words were written by Peter Wilhousky, an American whose family had come to America from the Ukraine long ago.


(from: wikipedia - carol of the bells)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Swiss Guard

Sunday, December 5, 2021

Good King Wenceslas


We just learned about the Christmas carol Angels We Have Heard on High.

Another famous Christmas carol is Good King Wenceslas.

This song is was written about an old story of a king and his helper who went out during cold winter snowy weather and help take care of poor people.
Around 930 AD, Wenceslas was the Duke of Bohemia which is now called the Czech Republic, and the story says he did this during the Feast of Stephen, which is on December 26th, and is meant to honor the apostle Stephen from the Bible.

The words for the song wer writen in 1853 by John Mason Neale from England, and the music came from another old song from 1582 in Finland called "Tempus adest floridum" which means "Eastertime has come".

Lyrics:
Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even;
Brightly shone the moon that night, tho’ the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, gath’ring winter fuel.

“Hither, page, and stand by me, if thou know’st it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?”
“Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain;
Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes’ fountain.”

“Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither:
Thou and I will see him dine, when we bear them thither.”
Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together;
Through the rude wind’s wild lament and the bitter weather.

“Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer.”
“Mark my footsteps, good my page. Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter’s rage freeze thy blood less coldly.”

In his master’s steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing.


(from: wikipedia - good king wenceslas)


Good King Wenceslas from "A Castle Christmas" - The best performance of this christmas carol EVER! - koutsakas99


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Bonfire of the Vanities

Sunday, November 28, 2021

Angels We Have Heard on High


We just learned about the Christmas carol The First Noel.

Another famous Christmas carol is Angels We Have Heard on High.

This song started out as a French Christmas carol called "Les Anges dans nos campagnes" which means "The angels in our countryside" taht was written in 1843.
In 1862 a church leader in England named James Chadwich wrote them in English, and the music that goes with it came from an old French tune called "Gloria".

The chorus of this song is "Gloria in excelsis Deo", and it is Latin for "Glory to God in the Highest" which comes from the Gospel of Luke in the Bible.

Lyrics:
Angels we have heard on high Sweetly singing o'er the plains
And the mountains in reply Echoing their joyous strains
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains prolong?
What the gladsome tidings be? Which inspire your heavenly songs?
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Come to Bethlehem and see Him whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee, Christ the Lord, the newborn King.
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Gloria in excelsis Deo!


(from: wikipedia - angels we have heard on high)



Pentatonix - Angels We Have Heard on High - Pentatonix


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Christianity in the New World

Sunday, November 21, 2021

The First Noel


We just learned about the Christmas song God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.

Another famous Christmas song is The First Noel.

This song was written long ago and first put into a songbook around 1823.

The word Noel was first spelled as "Nowell", and the word comes from the Latin word for birth.
In French the word Noël was used to mean the birth of Jesus and the Christmas season.

This song tells the story of the angels telling the shepherds about Jesus, and about the wise men who followed the star to see Jesus.



(from: wikipedia - the first noel)

The First Noel, the Angels did say Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay
In fields where they lay keeping their sheep On a cold winter's night that was so deep.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel Born is the King of Israel!

They looked up and saw a star Shining in the East beyond them far
And to the earth it gave great light And so it continued both day and night.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel Born is the King of Israel!

And by the light of that same star Three Wise men came from country far
To seek for a King was their intent And to follow the star wherever it went.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel Born is the King of Israel!

This star drew nigh to the northwest O'er Bethlehem it took its rest
And there it did both Pause and stay Right o'er the place where Jesus lay.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel Born is the King of Israel!

Then entered in those Wise men three Full reverently upon their knee
And offered there in His presence Their gold and myrrh and frankincense.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel Born is the King of Israel!

Then let us all with one accord Sing praises to our heavenly Lord
That hath made Heaven and earth of nought And with his blood mankind has bought.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel Born is the King of Israel!



Pentatonix - The First Noel (Official Video) - Pentatonix


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Spanish Inquisition

Sunday, November 14, 2021

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen


We just learned about the Christmas song Joy to the World.

Another famous Christmas song is God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, also called Tidings of Comfort and Joy.

This song is very old, and has been found in song books going back before the year 1700 AD.
No one is really sure who wrote the song, but it became very famous after Charles Dickens had it as part of his book A Christmas Carol, where Ebeneezer Scrooge hears carolers singing this and chases them away.

One interesting thing about this song is that the old meaning of "God rest ye merry gentlemen" really meant something like "May God give rest and happiness to the gentlemen", but now these days we think of it more like "May God give rest to the happy gentlemen".

The difference all came when someone moved the comma in the sentence:
Old: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
New: God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen


(from: wikipedia - god rest you merry, gentlemen)



Pentatonix - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Official Video) - Pentatonix


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Italian Renaissance

Sunday, November 7, 2021

Joy to the World


We just learned about the song It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.

Another famous Christmas song is Joy to the World.

This was written by Isaac Watts in 1719 in England.
Watts was famous for writing over 750 hymns, and this was another that he wrote for his church services.
One different thing about this Christmas song, is that it isn't really about Christmas!
The song is about when Jesus will come back from heaven again some day and there will be joy in the world.

The music for the song comes from Lowell Mason in 1848.

Joy to the world! the Lord is come; Let Earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room, And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing, And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the world! the Saviour reigns; Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love, And wonders, wonders, of His love.


(from: wikipedia - joy to the world)



Pentatonix - Joy To The World (Official Video) - Pentatonix


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Sistine Chapel