December

My favourite month is December. I just always like the run up to Christmas. I don’t like January and February much. March is a little better because we might start to get sunshine 😀. April and May are just OK. June can be nice. July and August are sometimes a bit humid or even rainy in Ireland. It can be disappointing because we hope for sunshine 🌞. I do like September and autumn sun, but things can get a little dismal in October and November.

In a couple of weeks’ time, I’m looking forward to going to the Advent Procession in St Mary’s Church of Ireland cathedral in Limerick. St Marys is believed to be the oldest cathedral in Ireland – founded in 1168.

It all takes place in candlelight. The choir moves around to various locations in the cathedral while they sing. And we all get to join in for some of the songs.

Many of my evangelical friends dislike anything traditional or “churchy”, but at Christmas, I think most of us like to sing the older hymns. Whatever our theological disagreements with the mainline churches, it’s great that there’s so much public focus on the birth of Jesus.

I’ll list 10 more Advent hymns and 10 of my favourite Christmas hymns.

Advent Hymns

What is Advent? Advent is the four-week season in the Christian calendar that prepares believers for the celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth at Christmas, while also pointing ahead to his promised return. There is no biblical command to celebrate Advent or Christmas as such. These are traditions that developed after the New Testament era. Some of the early puritans wanted to stop Christmas. But I like the fact that it makes people aware of Jesus, and I hope that it’ll prompt them to read the gospels and the rest of the New Testament to discover how the early Christians understood his teaching.

• Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
• Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates
• Hark! A Thrilling Voice Is Sounding
• Hark the Glad Sound! The Savior Comes
• Hills of the North, Rejoice
• On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry
• Savior of the Nations, Come
• Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying
• The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns

Christmas Hymns

I’ll begin with two of my favourites – hymns that I only discovered in later life. These are more classical – not the sort of things that you’d hear sung in streets and shopping centres:

• Silent Night
• Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
• Joy to the World
• O Holy Night
• O Come, All Ye Faithful
• The First Noel
• Angels We Have Heard on High
• O Little Town of Bethlehem
• Once in Royal David’s City

And here are a few Bible verses associated with Christmas:

Matthew 1:21
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Matthew 2:10-11 (The Wise Men)
¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Luke 2:8-12
⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Here are what I regard as the two most successful Christmas pop hits about the birth of Jesus. They go back a long way, but I couldn’t think of more recent songs specifically about the nativity.