Christmas carols are an important aspect of Christmas celebrations all over the world. They evoke in us the festive spirit with their simple lyrics and melody. Christmas Carols, whether “O Holy Night”, “Silver Bells”, or “Here Comes Santa Claus”, help to bring people together in harmony like no other music does. It has been said that Christmas songs wrap themselves about you like a shawl. But they warm more than your body. They warm your heart and fill it with a melody that makes you wish it would last forever.
Carols were first sung in Europe thousands of years ago, but these were not Christmas Carols. They were pagan songs, sung at the Winter Solstice celebrations as people danced round stone circles. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, usually taking place around the 22nd December. The word Carol actually means dance or a song of praise and joy! Carols used to be written and sung during all four seasons, but only the tradition of singing them at Christmas has really survived!

Early Christians took over the pagan solstice celebrations for Christmas and gave people Christian songs to sing instead of pagan ones. This began in AD 129 when a Roman Bishop said that a song called “Angel’s Hymn” should be sung at a Christmas service in Rome. Soon after this, many composers all over Europe started to write carols. However, not many people liked them as they were all written and sung in Latin, a language that the normal people couldn’t understand.

This was changed by St. Francis of Assisi when, in 1223, he started his Nativity plays in Italy. The people in the plays sang songs that told the story of Christ’s birth. Normally they were all in a language that the people watching the play could understand and join in! The new carols spread to France, Spain, Germany and other European countries.

The earliest carol like this was written in 1410. The carol was about Mary and Jesus meeting different people in Bethlehem. Most Carols from this time were very loosely based on the Christmas story and were seen as entertaining rather than religious songs. They were usually sung in homes rather than in churches! In Europe, a tradition began of groups of people going from door to door in the community and singing outside their houses.
There is a legend that says the term ‘Christmas Carol’ originated because a young girl named Carol went missing in London, one cold winter night. As her friends went from door to door searching for her, in a manner similar to the Christmas singers, the name Christmas Carol began to be used.

Popular songs such as “Jingle Bells” or “White Christmas” are also considered as Christmas carols and are now sung with great gusto around Christmas time. Just hearing the famous Christmas carol “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” makes us feel happier. New Christmas songs continue to be written that try to put into words the special feeling that we have for family and friends at Christmas time.

So how do we transform this to make it a reminder of the birth of Jesus Christ?

As you listen to all types of Christmas music this year, remember that the Angels may have been the first to sing a Christmas carol, as one star-lit night, they began to declare the message that baby Jesus had been born. Luke 2:10-12 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Our favorite Christmas song is “Mary’s Boy Child”. We first heard it the Christmas that Sheilah’s dad died. Christmas is a sad time to lose someone you love, but this song reminded us that year that ‘Man can live forevermore because of Christmas Day’ and we will see Pa Head again one day!

“We Wish You a Merry Christmas; We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!”

The history of Christmas lights dates back to 17th century Germany when candles were fastened to the tree branches by wax or pins. However, the candles melted quickly and were a fire hazard. In 1882, just three years after Thomas Edison’s light bulb invention, Edward Johnson, an associate of Mr. Edison, first lit up a Christmas tree by eighty electric bulbs. The red white and the blue bulbs of 6/8 of an inch in diameter were hand wired and wound round the trees like the beads of a string for a beautiful, sparkling effect.

Still out of range for most American families to purchase, Edison’s Christmas tree lights did not immediately catch on. It would take decades for affordable lighting to become available to most Americans. However, just after President Grover Cleveland commissioned a lighted White House tree in 1895, members of “high society” started hosting Christmas Tree parties. These events became more numerous even as the typical lighted tree of the early 1900s could cost as much as $300 ($2000 today), including the generator and wireman’s services.

Smaller and less expensive battery-operated lighting strings were decorating the trees of those adventurous enough to do the wiring. In fact, an article in Popular Electricity Magazine had a piece for children, explaining how to light the family tree with battery-powered electric lights. The back pages had instructions on ordering the necessary wire, sockets and light bulbs.

In 1903, The General Electric Company offered pre-assembled lighting outfits called festoons. They consisted of eight green porcelain sockets; eight Edison miniature based colored glass lamps and a handy serve in plug. The cost of General Electric’s first offering of Christmas lights was $12.00 for a set of 24 lights, enough to light a medium sized table-top tree. This was considered extremely expensive in 1903, as the average wage for the time was a mere 22¢ per hour, which equaled a weekly paycheck of about $13.20. Since the cost of purchasing the lights was expensive, they could be rented for the whole Christmas season. Later several companies began offering lamp sets and in this way the Christmas lighting industry began.

So how do we transform this to make it a reminder of the birth of Jesus Christ?
Each day that you turn on the lights of Christmas, be reminded, first of all, that Jesus came to be light in our darkness. John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
Then consider that the purpose of a follower of Jesus is to also be light in the world.
Philippians 2:15 That you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.