LET THE CAROLS RING

OK, here’s the antidote to yesterday’s jeremiad about horrible Christmas carols. As usual, I stand behind my words, even though I was in a phenomenally bilious mood when I wrote them. At any rate, here’s six Christmas carols which I think are totally underrated, with links to lyrics where possible.

• “I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day”: The Waltham tune, if you please. Apart from being written by a bona fide wordsmith, the words (if one omits the calumnies directed at the South, which everybody does) make this one of the few Christmas carols to admit that all is not always sweetness and light at the holidays, and doubt is a frequent companion of faith. Therefore it’s an invaluable hymn for our times.
• “Cold December Flies Away”: I can’t link to the lyrics; they’re copyrighted. But if you know this song, you know that it’s one of the most hopeful of all Christmas carols . . . and the music is way cool, too.
• “Still, Still, Still”: It’s a crime that we Lutherans don’t have this in our hymnal. It’s a perfect example of music and lyrics evoking each other, fitting together like gears in a transmission. If there’s ever a night when we all need a lullabye, it’s Christmas Eve.
• “The Coventry Carol”: Wonderfully ambiguous and haunting. We tend to forget that Jesus entered the world under Herod’s death sentence. Unfortunately, that bans this carol from most Christmas celebrations.
• “Mary’s Boy Child”: As outright jubliant as “Coventry Carol” is not, this may be the only beloved Christmas song written by a sitcom star.
• “Feliz Navidad”: Oh, come on, this song is so happy. Though we Midwesterners probably have a hard time not adding the words “and from Taco John’s” at the very end of the song.