Carols

Well, I enjoyed a lovely Christmas here in the UK visiting friends and skyping with family. One of the questions I've been asked was about carols sung at my church here. Most Sundays I don't know any of the songs that we sing at church but I recognized most of the carols they sang. We sang Angels We Have Heard on High, O Come All Ye Faithful, Good King Wenceslas, as well as songs like Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer at the carol sessions, though not in church services ;)

Some of them I wasn't familiar with so I thought I would share these with you. I've looked these up on YouTube and will link them so you can hear them.

This one sounds familiar but I don't remember ever singing it before. It's a nice song. When I heard it, it reminded me of the movie The Small One. I may have to add this to my Christmas song list.

~> Little Donkey <~

In The Bleak Midwinter was sung at ever carol singing and maybe on every Sunday in December. It is very popular here but I had never heard it before.

~> In The Bleak Midwinter <~

This last one we sang in church on Sunday and I thought it was a fun little carol. In church we only sang 6 verses but when I was looking for a recording to share with you I found that there are actually quite a few versions of it. I've decided to share two videos of it I liked.

The Cherry Tree Carol, this one is similar in style and wording to what we sang in church.

Judy Collins version, while looking there were a lot of folk song renditions of this but I really liked this version. It has quite a few more verses than what we sang and changes up the wording a bit and if you look it up yourself I'm sure you will find even more variations in tune and words.

Happy Holidays!