191 Fun Facts About Christmas Carols History

Silent Night was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 in a village church near which Austrian city?

Oberndorf, where Silent Night was first sung at St Nicholas church in 1818, lies about 17 km north of Salzburg; the flood-damaged church was later replaced by the Silent Night Chapel.

In Good King Wenceslas, whom does the king trudge through the snow to help?

The king spots a poor peasant gathering winter fuel and sets out with flesh, wine and pine logs; his page keeps going by treading in the king's footprints.

Who wrote the words to Silent Night, two years before it was set to music?

Joseph Mohr, a young assistant priest, wrote the six-verse poem in 1816; a manuscript in his own hand, found in 1995, finally confirmed that date and named Gruber as the composer.

In 2011 Silent Night was declared an intangible cultural heritage by which organisation?

The Austrian Commission for UNESCO added Silent Night to its national inventory of intangible cultural heritage in March 2011, honouring the carol first sung at Oberndorf in 1818.

In We Wish You a Merry Christmas, what do the singers refuse to leave without?

Figgy pudding is the demand, 'we won't go until we get some': a cheeky echo of the old custom of rewarding house-to-house carollers with food and drink, in a song from England's West Country.

Placide Cappeau reportedly composed the poem behind O Holy Night in 1847 while travelling how?

Legend says Placide Cappeau, a Roquemaure wine merchant, drafted Minuit, chrétiens in a stagecoach on the road to Paris after his parish priest asked him for a Christmas poem.

Which composer of the ballet Giselle set O Holy Night to music within days?

Adolphe Adam wrote the music for Emily Laurey, a singer he knew who was then living in Roquemaure; he set the poem in a few days and she sang it at Midnight Mass there in 1847.

John Sullivan Dwight's English version of O Holy Night says that which person 'is our brother'?

The slave is 'our brother' in Dwight's third verse, 'Chains shall He break'; it follows Cappeau's French original, in which the Redeemer sees a brother where there was only a slave.

Wesley's original 1739 opening line for Hark the Herald Angels Sing mentioned the 'welkin', meaning what?

The sky, or the vault of heaven, is what 'welkin' means: Wesley wrote 'Hark how all the welkin rings', and George Whitefield changed it in 1753 to the herald angels sung today.

Mendelssohn wrote the tune now used for Hark the Herald Angels Sing to celebrate the 400th anniversary of what?

The printing press, credited to Gutenberg, was the hero of Mendelssohn's secular 1840 cantata; in 1855 the English organist William Cummings fitted Wesley's words to one of its choruses.

God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen is name-checked in which Charles Dickens Christmas book?

A Christmas Carol has a young singer try it at Scrooge's keyhole, only to flee when Scrooge seizes a ruler; Dickens words the line 'God bless you, merry gentleman'.

The earliest known copies of which Christmas hymn are in the hand of the 18th-century music copyist John Francis Wade?

Adeste Fideles, known in English as O Come, All Ye Faithful, comes down from Wade, an English Catholic living in exile abroad; a Durham scholar argues its words began as a coded birth ode to Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Which priest's 1841 translation became the English carol 'O Come All Ye Faithful'?

Frederick Oakeley, then an Anglican at London's Margaret Chapel, made the translation in 1841 and became a Roman Catholic in 1845; his opening 'Ye faithful, approach ye' was revised to 'O come, all ye faithful' in 1852.

The real Wenceslas of Good King Wenceslas was a tenth-century duke of which land?

Bohemia's Duke Wenceslaus was murdered in a plot by his brother Boleslav and became the Czech patron saint; the title of king came only after his death, conferred by Emperor Otto I.

Good King Wenceslas is set to a 13th-century tune originally about which season?

The tune is Tempus adest floridum, 'the time of flowers is here', a 13th-century spring song that J. M. Neale paired with his new Wenceslas words in 1853.

The First Nowell is a traditional English carol most likely from which county?

It reached a wide audience through an 1833 antiquarian collection, Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern.

The melody of Deck the Halls comes from Nos Galan, a traditional carol from which country?

Wales supplied the tune, Nos Galan, a song for New Year's Eve rather than Christmas; Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant wrote the English words for it in 1862.

We Three Kings was written in 1857 by an Episcopal clergyman in which country?

America: John Henry Hopkins Jr. is said to have written it for a New York seminary's Christmas pageant, giving each of the three kings a solo verse about his gift.

Phillips Brooks wrote O Little Town of Bethlehem in 1868 for which group at his Philadelphia church?

The Sunday school sang it first, a few years after Brooks spent Christmas in Bethlehem; organist Lewis Redner put off the tune until the night before, then woke with the melody in his head.

Which composer collected 'Forest Green', the British tune for O Little Town of Bethlehem?

Ralph Vaughan Williams took the tune from a folk ballad, The Ploughboy's Dream, and fitted it to the carol for the 1906 English Hymnal; US churches sing Lewis Redner's 'St. Louis' instead.

Edmund Sears, the Massachusetts pastor who wrote It Came Upon the Midnight Clear in 1849, belonged to which denomination?

Unitarian minister Edmund Sears wrote it in 1849 at Wayland; unusually for a carol, its plea for peace on a warring earth never mentions the birth of Jesus.

Angels We Have Heard on High is an English version of a traditional carol from which country?

France's Les Anges dans nos campagnes was freely paraphrased in 1862 by James Chadwick, a Catholic bishop in north-east England, who left the refrain 'Gloria in excelsis Deo' as it stood.

In the Bleak Midwinter began as a poem by which Victorian poet, published in Scribner's Monthly in 1872?

Christina Rossetti's poem appeared in Scribner's Monthly in January 1872; it became a carol only in 1906, twelve years after her death, when The English Hymnal set it to music.

Which English composer wrote the congregational tune 'Cranham' for In the Bleak Midwinter?

Gustav Holst wrote Cranham for the 1906 English Hymnal, bending the tune to fit the poem's irregular lines so a congregation could sing them; choirs often prefer Harold Darke's 1909 anthem.

The Coventry Carol, a lullaby sung by mothers, refers to which biblical event?

The Massacre of the Innocents is its subject: in a 16th-century Coventry nativity play, the mothers of Bethlehem sing the lullaby on stage to the babies Herod has doomed.

Cecil Frances Alexander's 1848 hymnbook, with Once in Royal David's City, was aimed at whom?

Alexander's Hymns for Little Children (1848) taught the Creed to the young, this hymn illustrating 'born of the Virgin Mary'; Henry Gauntlett's tune Irby followed in 1849.

At King's College Cambridge, who sings the first verse of Once in Royal David's City on Christmas Eve?

A solo boy chorister sings the first verse unaccompanied; by tradition the director of music chooses him only seconds before the service begins, so no boy has time to get nervous.

Away in a Manger was long wrongly said to be a cradle song that which man wrote for his children?

Martin Luther got the credit in 1880s America, where it was printed as 'Luther's Cradle Hymn', supposedly sung by German mothers; nothing like it exists in his writings, and the carol is American.

Joy to the World was written in 1719 by which English hymn-writer as a paraphrase of Psalm 98?

Isaac Watts published it in 1719 as a paraphrase of Psalm 98 headed 'The Messiah's Coming and Kingdom'; it was not written for Christmas, and gained its familiar tune only a century later.

Which folk-song collector took down the standard version of The Holly and the Ivy from a singer in Chipping Campden?

Cecil Sharp noted the words and tune from Mary Clayton of Chipping Campden and printed them in his English Folk-Carols (1911), the book that fixed the version sung today.

Jingle Bells was first sung in public in September 1857 at Ordway Hall in Boston by what kind of entertainer?

Blackface minstrel performer Johnny Pell sang it at Ordway Hall that September; the piece was one of many sleighing songs of the day and became a Christmas staple only decades later.

James Lord Pierpont, composer of Jingle Bells, was organist of a church led by his brother in which Georgia city?

Savannah gave Pierpont work as a church organist while his brother preached there; the son of a Boston abolitionist then stayed in Georgia and wrote songs for Confederate soldiers.

The lost 1889 Jingle Bells, thought to be the first Christmas record, was on what format?

Banjoist Will Lyle recorded it on an Edison wax cylinder in 1889, a recording now lost; the earliest surviving version is the Edison Male Quartette's 1898 cylinder 'Sleigh Ride Party'.

Carol of the Bells is based on Shchedryk, a Ukrainian song originally associated with which celebration?

The New Year: Shchedryk is a Ukrainian well-wishing song in which a swallow flies into a house to promise a bountiful year, probably a relic of a pre-Christian new year that came in spring.

Shchedryk had its US premiere in October 1922 at which New York venue?

Oleksander Koshetz's Ukrainian National Chorus sang Shchedryk at Carnegie Hall on 5 October 1922; Peter Wilhousky, an NBC arranger, wrote the bell-themed English words in 1936.

The tune of Ding Dong Merrily on High first appeared in a 16th-century French book as what kind of piece?

Thoinot Arbeau's manual Orchésographie printed the tune in the 1580s as a dance, the 'Branle de l'Official'; it became a carol only in 1924, when George Ratcliffe Woodward wrote the bell-filled words.

What Child Is This? sets William Chatterton Dix's 1865 words to which traditional English tune?

Greensleeves, an Elizabethan love ballad registered in 1580, gained Dix's sacred words in an 1871 carol book; he had written them as part of a longer poem, The Manger Throne.

Which Austrian vocal group made the first recording of The Little Drummer Boy in 1951?

The Trapp Family Singers made the first recording in 1951 for Decca, under Katherine K. Davis's original title; the song only became a hit seven years later.

Do You Hear What I Hear? was written as a plea for peace during which Cold War standoff?

The Cuban Missile Crisis was unfolding in October 1962 when Noël Regney wrote the words and his wife Gloria Shayne the music, the reverse of their usual roles as a songwriting couple.

Mary's Boy Child, later a Boney M. disco hit, first topped the UK chart in 1957 for which American singer?

Harry Belafonte took it to number one in Britain for seven weeks; writer Jester Hairston had begun it as a calypso party song for West Indian friends before giving the tune Christmas words.

The Wexford Carol is a traditional carol from which country?

The carol is from Enniscorthy, County Wexford, in Ireland's south-east, and is also called the Enniscorthy Carol; it was transcribed by William Grattan Flood, organist at Enniscorthy cathedral.

Which printer, William Caxton's successor, published The Boar's Head Carol in a 1521 collection?

Wynkyn de Worde, who took over Caxton's press, printed it in his Christmasse Carolles of 1521; the carol is sung each year at The Queen's College, Oxford, as a boar's head is carried in.

The first Nine Lessons and Carols service was held on Christmas Eve 1880 at which English cathedral?

Truro's bishop, Edward White Benson, held the first service on Christmas Eve 1880 in the temporary wooden building used while the cathedral was built; he is said to have hoped it would draw revellers out of the pubs.

King's College, Cambridge began its Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols weeks after the end of which war?

World War I had just ended when Eric Milner-White, a former army chaplain newly made dean, introduced the service on Christmas Eve 1918, wanting more imaginative worship; radio has carried it since 1928.

In dulci jubilo is a medieval macaronic carol, its text originally mixing Latin with which language?

German and Latin alternate through the text, which tradition ascribes to the mystic Heinrich Seuse, said to have heard angels sing it around 1328.

Piae Cantiones, the 1582 songbook behind Gaudete and the Good King Wenceslas tune, gathered songs from the schools of which Nordic land?

Finland's cathedral school at Turku supplied them: its headmaster Jacobus Finno compiled the songs, and they reached England in 1853, when a diplomat gave J. M. Neale a rare copy.

Vernacular Christmas songs spread through 13th-century Italy under which saint's influence?

Francis of Assisi, who staged a living Nativity scene at Greccio, is credited with encouraging Christmas songs in the people's own tongue, a habit that spread from Italy across Europe.

In the legend behind The Boar's Head Carol, an Oxford student kills a wild boar by thrusting whose book down its throat?

Aristotle saved him: the student, reading in a forest near Oxford, rammed the volume into the charging boar's mouth with the cry 'Graecum est', and his college has feasted on a boar's head ever since.

In which period were England's carols driven underground, sung only in private at semi-secret services?

The Puritan era brought a ban: in 1647 Parliament outlawed the celebration of Christmas, so carols survived in private until the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 ended it.

Whose 1833 collection Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern preserved The First Noel and I Saw Three Ships?

William Sandys, a London solicitor and antiquary, printed The First Noel, I Saw Three Ships, Hark the Herald and God Rest You Merry in his 1833 Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern.

Which organisation, whose bands are known for street carols, got its first brass band from Charles Fry and his sons in 1878?

The Salvation Army gained its first band when Charles Fry and his three sons brought their brass instruments to its outdoor meetings, at first as bodyguards who played to distract hostile crowds.

Orchard-visiting wassailers in the West Country sing to the trees to promote a good harvest of what?

Apples for cider are the point: wassailers pour cider on the roots, hang toast in the branches and make a din with pots and guns to scare evil spirits out of the orchard.

The Twelve Days of Christmas, first printed around 1780, probably began as what kind of children's pastime?

A memory-and-forfeits game: each player had to repeat the growing list of gifts and paid a forfeit for any slip; the tune sung today comes from Frederic Austin's 1909 arrangement.

Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming first appeared in print in 1599 in which German city?

Es ist ein Ros entsprungen was first printed in a Catholic hymnal, the so-called Speyer Gesangbuch, published at Cologne in 1599; Michael Praetorius's 1609 harmonisation is the one everyone sings.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel paraphrases which plainchants sung at Vespers just before Christmas?

The O Antiphons, sung at Vespers from 17 to 23 December, each hail Christ by a different title; read backwards, the titles' initials spell 'ero cras', taken to mean 'tomorrow I will be there'.

Before it became a Christmas song, O Tannenbaum praised the fir tree as a symbol of what?

Faithfulness: the evergreen fir stays true all year, and in August Zarnack's earlier version it shames an unfaithful sweetheart; Ernst Anschütz's 1824 verses turned the song toward Christmas.

Good King Wenceslas looks out on the Feast of Stephen, which falls on what date?

26 December is St Stephen's Day in the Western church, honouring the first Christian martyr, a deacon chosen to hand out food to widows; the carol's king spends it on a charitable errand through the snow.

Which singer made the original 1953 recording of Santa Baby?

Eartha Kitt had it written to order by Joan Javits and Philip Springer; the third name on its credits, Tony Springer, wrote none of it and was added to get the song past a feud between rival music-licensing bodies.

In the original German words of Silent Night, the infant Jesus is described as having what?

Curly hair: the German first verse hails the 'lovely boy with curly hair', which the standard English version of 1859 turned into 'holy infant so tender and mild'.

Silent Night first spread across Europe in the 1830s billed as a genuine folk song from which Alpine region?

Tyrol's travelling singing families, the Strassers and the Rainers, carried it from the Zillertal to fairs and royal courts, so publishers sold it as a Tyrolean folk song and its village authors went unnamed until 1854.

At the first performance of Silent Night in 1818, which instrument did Joseph Mohr play?

Mohr played guitar and sang tenor at the Christmas Eve 1818 Mass while Gruber, who had composed the melody to Mohr's request that day, sang bass; the choir joined for the refrain.

By his own later account, radio pioneer Reginald Fessenden played O Holy Night on which instrument in a 1906 Christmas Eve broadcast?

Violin, by his own telling: in 1932 Fessenden recalled playing the carol and singing over the air from Brant Rock, Massachusetts, which would make it the first music broadcast, though nothing from 1906 documents it.

Which British Labour Party anthem is sung to the tune of O Tannenbaum?

The Red Flag, written in 1889 by the Irish socialist Jim Connell, closes Labour's annual conference to the carol's tune, though Connell wanted another melody and scorned this one as church music.

Under what title was Jingle Bells first copyrighted in September 1857?

Pierpont registered it as 'The One Horse Open Sleigh' with Oliver Ditson of Boston; the 1859 reissue retitled it 'Jingle Bells, or The One Horse Open Sleigh'.

A plaque in which Massachusetts town claims to mark the birthplace of Jingle Bells?

Medford's plaque at 19 High Street says Pierpont wrote the song at the Simpson Tavern in 1850; researcher Kyna Hamill argues it was more likely written in Boston shortly before he moved south.

In 1965, which spacecraft's astronauts played Jingle Bells on a smuggled harmonica and bells?

Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford aboard Gemini 6 reported a 'UFO' in polar orbit, Santa Claus, then played Jingle Bells on a smuggled harmonica and sleigh bells; Schirra gave the harmonica to the Smithsonian in 1967.

Which bandleader's 1941 big-band Jingle Bells reached No. 5 on the Billboard pop chart?

Glenn Miller's band took it to No. 5 with vocals by Tex Beneke, Ernie Caceres and the Modernaires; within a year Miller had given up the band to join the US military.

White Christmas was written by Irving Berlin for which 1942 musical film?

Holiday Inn's makers expected its Valentine's Day number, Be Careful, It's My Heart, to be the hit; instead Bing Crosby's Christmas song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Why did Bing Crosby re-record White Christmas in March 1947?

The 1942 master was damaged by overuse, worn out from pressing so many copies, so Crosby re-recorded the song on 19 March 1947 with the same orchestra and singers; that remake is the one on later pressings.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was originally created in 1939 as an assignment for which company?

Copywriter Robert L. May wrote the story for Montgomery Ward, which gave away 2.4 million copies of the booklet to shoppers in 1939; his brother-in-law later turned it into the song.

Who recorded the original 1949 hit version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?

Gene Autry told the story that he disliked the song until his wife Ina, charmed by its ugly-duckling theme, urged him to record it.

The 1949 hit recording of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer holds what distinction in US chart history?

First No. 1 of the 1950s: released in September 1949, it led Billboard's best-sellers chart for the week ending 7 January 1950, and its success led two songwriters to write Frosty the Snowman, which the same singer recorded a year later.

Whose 1958 record Run Rudolph Run is a rock-and-roll sequel to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?

Chuck Berry cut Run Rudolph Run for Chess Records in 1958, but had to hand the publishing to the writer of the original reindeer song, who owned the rights to the character.

The writers of Frosty the Snowman also scored a 1950 hit with a song for which other holiday?

Easter: Jack Rollins and Steve Nelson wrote Here Comes Peter Cottontail, a 1950 hit for the same singing cowboy who then recorded Frosty in search of another seasonal smash.

Which comedian narrated and sang in the 1969 Rankin/Bass TV special Frosty the Snowman?

Jimmy Durante narrated the special and sang the title song in his gravelly style; the animation was done by Japan's Mushi Production, with Jackie Vernon voicing Frosty.

In the song Frosty the Snowman, what do the children find that brings the snowman to life?

An old silk hat: the lyric says there must have been some magic in it, and the 1969 TV special built its plot on that line, with a failed magician chasing Frosty to take his hat back.

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town became a hit after which entertainer sang it on his radio show in November 1934?

Eddie Cantor sang it on his radio show in November 1934 and it became a hit overnight, although music publishers had doubted that a kids' song would sell.

Bruce Springsteen's famous live Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town was recorded in 1975 at what kind of venue?

The recording comes from a 12 December 1975 concert at C. W. Post College on Long Island; it surfaced on the 1981 children's compilation In Harmony 2 and became the B-side of My Hometown in 1985.

The chorus refrain that Bruce Springsteen borrowed for Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town comes from whose 1963 recording?

The Crystals cut it for Phil Spector's album A Christmas Gift for You, a flop when it came out in the month President Kennedy was shot and a success only when it was reissued in 1972.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas was introduced by Judy Garland in which 1944 MGM musical?

In Meet Me in St. Louis, Garland's Esther sings it on Christmas Eve to console her little sister Tootie, played by Margaret O'Brien, as the family faces a move away from St. Louis.

Which singer asked Hugh Martin in 1957 to 'jolly up' a line of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas?

Frank Sinatra, recording A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra in 1957, asked Hugh Martin to replace 'until then we'll have to muddle through somehow' with 'hang a shining star upon the highest bough'.

Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne wrote Let It Snow! in 1945 under what conditions?

A Hollywood heatwave: on one of the hottest days of July 1945 Cahn wanted to head for the beach, but Styne suggested they stay in and write a winter song instead.

Who made the first recording of Let It Snow! in autumn 1945, taking it to No. 1?

Vaughn Monroe's record came out late in 1945 and reached No. 1 early in 1946, while Woody Herman's rival version stalled lower in the top ten, though the lyric never once mentions Christmas.

Lyricist Richard Smith wrote Winter Wonderland in 1934 while being treated for which illness?

Tuberculosis: Richard B. Smith wrote the words in a Scranton sanitarium, reportedly with the snowy park of his hometown, Honesdale, in mind, and died of the disease the following year, aged 33.

In the 1947 children's rewrite of Winter Wonderland, Parson Brown was replaced by what figure?

The 1947 children's lyric swaps the parson for 'a circus clown' that the kids build in the meadow, turning a romantic winter stroll into a song about playing in the snow.

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) was co-written by Robert Wells and which jazz singer?

Mel Tormé spotted four pencilled lines on Robert Wells's notepad that Wells never meant as a lyric, and the pair turned them into a finished song in well under an hour.

Nat King Cole's hit 1946 recording of The Christmas Song added what to his trio's usual sound?

A string section: the trio first cut the song without one in June 1946, then recorded it again that August with a handful of string players, and the sweeter take became the hit.

Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride was premiered in May 1948 by which orchestra?

The Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler gave the first performance in May 1948, and their 1949 record made it a hit as a purely orchestral piece, a year before anyone wrote words for it.

Near the end of Sleigh Ride, which instrument imitates a horse whinnying?

A trumpet whinnies in the closing bars while a percussionist supplies the clip-clop and whip crack, and the Ronettes' 1963 pop version kept the joke with a horse's whinny at its start and end.

Who was commissioned by Mills Music in 1950 to add lyrics to Sleigh Ride?

Mitchell Parish, who had also put words to Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust, wrote the Sleigh Ride lyric in 1950; it never mentions Christmas or any other holiday.

Under what title did Katherine Kennicott Davis originally write The Little Drummer Boy in 1941?

Carol of the Drum was published in 1941 as a 'Czech carol freely transcribed', a label Davis is said to have made up to give her own tune an air of mystery.

Whose 1958 chorale recording turned The Little Drummer Boy into a perennial Christmas chart hit?

Harry Simeone's chorale recorded it for 20th Century Fox Records in 1958, closely copying a Jack Halloran Singers arrangement of 1957; the record returned to the US charts every Christmas through 1962.

Bing Crosby's 1977 duet medley of The Little Drummer Boy was sung with which rock star?

David Bowie taped the medley with Crosby in September 1977, a month before Crosby died; when Bowie balked at the carol, the show's writers composed his counter-melody, Peace on Earth, in about an hour.

Feliz Navidad was written and first recorded in 1970 by which Puerto Rican singer-guitarist?

José Feliciano kept the lyric to 19 words and added its one English line on purpose, reasoning that English-language radio stations might not play a song sung only in Spanish.

Besides acoustic guitar, which Puerto Rican instrument does the singer of Feliz Navidad play on the original recording?

The cuatro, Puerto Rico's ten-string national instrument, is played on the record by the singer himself, who first made music at three by tapping a tin along to his uncle's cuatro.

Which vocal group backed Elvis Presley on his 1957 recording of Blue Christmas?

The Jordanaires, Elvis's regular gospel-quartet backers, sang on the September 1957 session for Elvis' Christmas Album, joined by soprano Millie Kirkham, whose high wail became the record's signature.

Which singer was only 13 when she recorded Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree in 1958?

Brenda Lee, nicknamed Little Miss Dynamite, was 13 at the Nashville session in October 1958; the single sold poorly at first and only took off in 1960, once she had become a star.

Which singer had the original 1957 hit with Jingle Bell Rock?

Bobby Helms always maintained that he and guitarist Hank Garland rewrote the demo Decca handed them, then called Jingle Bell Hop, yet the credit stayed with its two original writers.

Silver Bells was written for which 1951 Bob Hope film?

The Lemon Drop Kid has Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell sing it; its writers had called it 'Tinkle Bells' until one of their wives pointed out the word's bathroom meaning.

Which composer of The Music Man wrote It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas in 1951?

Meredith Willson wrote it in 1951, six years before The Music Man, and later worked it into Here's Love, his 1963 Broadway musical version of Miracle on 34th Street.

Here Comes Santa Claus was inspired by its singer's horseback ride in a 1946 Christmas parade in which city?

Los Angeles: riding his horse Champion in the 1946 Santa Claus Lane Parade, the singing cowboy heard children shout 'Here comes Santa Claus!' and had the song in the shops by Christmas 1947.

Which broadcaster banned I'll Be Home for Christmas in WWII, fearing it would sap troop morale?

The BBC kept the song off its airwaves, judging that its homesick lyric could lower the morale of British troops; in the US it was one of the big hits of Christmas 1943.

In the 1964 TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Burl Ives sang A Holly Jolly Christmas as which character?

Sam the Snowman, the banjo-strumming narrator, was Burl Ives's role; the song had been meant for the prospector Yukon Cornelius until the producers brought Ives in for his star power.

Veni redemptor gentium, among the earliest known Christmas hymns, was written in the 4th century by which Church Father?

Ambrose of Milan wrote Veni redemptor gentium ('Come, Redeemer of the nations') in the late 4th century, an austere hymn asserting the Incarnation against Arianism; it was later translated into German and English.

Henry Bramley co-edited the 1871 revival book Christmas Carols, New and Old with which composer?

John Stainer, organist of Magdalen College and later St Paul's Cathedral, arranged the tunes for Bramley's 1871 collection, which fixed favourites such as See, Amid the Winter's Snow in popular memory.

Carols for Choirs, the bestselling OUP series first published in 1961, was edited by Reginald Jacques and whom?

David Willcocks, then director of music at King's College, Cambridge, edited the 1961 first volume with Reginald Jacques, and the descants he wrote for it became standard in Anglican churches.

The word 'wassail' comes from a salutation in which language, meaning 'be in good health'?

Wassail derives from the Old Norse greeting 'ves heill', 'be in good health'; the toast-and-reply formula 'wassail … drinkhail' grew up among the Danish settlers of England and is recorded in the 12th century.

Orchard wassailers who keep 'Old Twelvey Night' on 17 January are ignoring which reform of 1752?

The Gregorian calendar reached Britain in 1752 and dropped eleven days, so wassailers who kept the old reckoning now toast their orchards on 17 January rather than on Twelfth Night.

In which Shakespeare play does a prince complain that his uncle the king 'keeps wassail'?

In Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 4, the prince tells Horatio that Claudius 'takes his rouse, keeps wassail', then calls such carousing 'a custom more honoured in the breach than the observance'.

Carols by Candlelight, the outdoor singalong tradition, was popularised in 1938 in which city?

Radio announcer Norman Banks staged the first Carols by Candlelight in Melbourne's Alexandra Gardens in 1938, reportedly after seeing an elderly woman singing along to a radio carol by candlelight.

Since 1959, the original Carols by Candlelight has been held on Christmas Eve at which permanent venue?

The Sidney Myer Music Bowl opened in February 1959 and gave the carols a permanent home that Christmas, after two decades in which the crowds had outgrown the event's first site.

Cornish miners in Moonta, South Australia, sang carols on Christmas Eve with candles stuck to what?

Moonta's Cornish miners stuck tallow 'fat-jack' candles on their hats with wet clay and sang carols through the night, a custom often cited as a forerunner of Carols by Candlelight.

Benjamin Britten composed A Ceremony of Carols in 1942 while doing what?

Sailing from the US to England in 1942 aboard the Axel Johnson, Britten wrote the carols and rewrote a hymn whose manuscript customs officers had seized, fearing it was a code.

Which instrument accompanies the choir in Britten's A Ceremony of Carols?

A harp solo Interlude based on the Gregorian chant Hodie Christus natus est helps unify the eleven movements.

Bach's Christmas Oratorio is really a set of six what, one for each feast day from Christmas to Epiphany?

Cantatas: Bach wrote one for each of six feast days from Christmas Day 1734 to Epiphany, so the 'oratorio' was first heard in instalments spread over almost two weeks.

Bach borrowed the Christmas Oratorio's opening chorus and several arias from music he had written for which occasions?

Royal birthdays: the opening chorus began as 'Resound, ye drums!', written in 1733 for the birthday of the Electress of Saxony, and it still opens with the drums that the first words called for.

John Wesley Work Jr., credited with preserving Go Tell It on the Mountain, collected the spirituals sung by which group?

The Fisk Jubilee Singers were directed by Work, a teacher at Fisk University, until he resigned in 1923 amid what he saw as growing hostility there to folk music.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day is based on a Civil War poem by which American poet?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote Christmas Bells after his son Charley, who had run away to join the Union army, came home with a severe gunshot wound from a battle in Virginia.

Which Rudolph songwriter composed the 1956 melody for I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day recorded by Bing Crosby?

Johnny Marks, writer of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, set the poem in 1956; Bing Crosby recorded it that October and is said to have joked that Marks had finally found himself a decent lyricist.

The Huron Carol, first sung in the Wendat language, is traditionally credited to which Jesuit missionary?

Jean de Brébeuf is said to have written Jesous Ahatonhia around 1642; it survived by ear for over a century until a priest wrote it down from a Huron singer in Quebec.

In the English Huron Carol, what do the visiting chiefs bring in place of gold, frankincense and myrrh?

Fox and beaver pelts are the gifts in Jesse Edgar Middleton's 1926 English lyric, which also borrows an Algonquian name for God, Gitchi Manitou, found nowhere in the Wendat original.

Which Poet Laureate is credited with the words of While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks, published in 1700?

Nahum Tate, Poet Laureate from 1692, is credited with the words, first printed in 1700; for most of the 18th century it was the only Christmas hymn the Church of England approved.

The standard British tune for While Shepherds Watched, Winchester Old, first appeared in a 1592 book of what?

Winchester Old was printed in Thomas Este's 1592 The Whole Booke of Psalmes, a book of metrical psalms; the tune was adapted from Christopher Tye's 1553 setting of the Acts of the Apostles.

The Coventry Carol comes down to us from what kind of medieval English drama?

A mystery play: the carol is sung in the Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, which Coventry's guilds performed for nearly two centuries until the plays were suppressed in the later 16th century.

What became of the only manuscript of the Coventry Carol, written out by Robert Croo in 1534?

Burned in a library fire in Birmingham in 1879, the manuscript lives on only because a Coventry antiquarian had printed careful copies of its words and music in 1817 and 1825.

Who composed 'Humility', the 1871 tune for See Amid the Winter's Snow?

John Goss, organist of St Paul's Cathedral, wrote Humility in 1871 for a poem already 13 years old, and a landmark carol collection carried the pairing nationwide that same year.

The Cherry Tree Carol is unusual in belonging both to the Christmas repertoire and to which collection of traditional songs?

The Child Ballads, Francis James Child's great collection, include it for its story: a cherry tree bows down to feed Mary after an angry Joseph refuses to pick her any fruit.

Do They Know It's Christmas? was written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and which Ultravox frontman?

Midge Ure, Ultravox's frontman, wrote the music and produced the track; Band Aid recorded it in one day at Sarm West Studios on 25 November 1984 and it sold a million copies in its first week.

Wham! donated their royalties from Last Christmas, a 1984 number two, to which cause?

Ethiopian famine relief: Band Aid's charity single kept Last Christmas at number two in 1984, and Wham! gave their royalties to the same cause; the song finally reached number one in January 2021.

Mariah Carey co-wrote and co-produced All I Want for Christmas Is You with which collaborator?

Walter Afanasieff co-wrote and co-produced the song with Mariah Carey; it was the lead single from her 1994 album Merry Christmas and first topped the Billboard Hot 100 in December 2019.

Which singer duets with Shane MacGowan on the Pogues' Fairytale of New York?

Kirsty MacColl only sang a guide vocal at first: her husband Steve Lillywhite, the producer, recorded it at home, and the Pogues liked it so much that they kept her for the duet.

Wonderful Christmastime was recorded during sessions for which 1980 solo album by a former Beatle?

Paul McCartney taped it alone in summer 1979 during the McCartney II sessions, playing every part himself; the video with Wings was shot at the Fountain Inn in Ashurst, West Sussex.

Which vocal group is credited alongside the Plastic Ono Band on Happy Xmas (War Is Over)?

Children of the Harlem Community Choir sang the 'War is over, if you want it' refrain at the Record Plant session in October 1971; the phrase echoes Lennon and Ono's 1969 billboard campaign.

Which glam rock band's Merry Xmas Everybody was the UK Christmas number one of 1973?

Slade built the chorus on a psychedelic song about a rocking chair that Noddy Holder had written and shelved in 1967; Jim Lea added a verse that came to him in the shower.

Why did Wizzard re-record I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday in 1981?

The 1973 master tapes were lost, so Roy Wood re-recorded the song in 1981 with children from Kempsey Primary School in Worcestershire in place of the original Stockland Green School choir.

Cliff Richard's 1988 hit Mistletoe and Wine was originally written for a musical based on which fairy tale?

The song came from Scraps, a musical based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl, where it was sung ironically; Cliff Richard altered the lyrics to give it a religious theme.

Which UK broadcaster announces the Christmas number one single each year?

BBC Radio 1's chart show reveals the Christmas number one on the Friday before Christmas; in 2009 a fan campaign put Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the Name there instead of that year's X Factor winner.

Whose Merry Christmas Everyone was the UK Christmas number one single of 1985?

Shakin' Stevens recorded Merry Christmas Everyone in 1984 but held it back a year so as not to compete with Band Aid; it topped the UK chart at Christmas 1985.

O Tannenbaum's familiar words were written in 1824 by Ernst Anschütz, an organist in which German city famed for Bach?

Ernst Anschütz, a Leipzig schoolteacher and organist, added two Christmas verses in 1824 to August Zarnack's 1820 first verse, which is why the German text mentions Christmas only from verse two.

Which Victorian artist and poet wrote the words of Masters in This Hall around 1860 to an old French tune?

William Morris wrote the words for a carol book compiled in 1860 by Edmund Sedding, who had trained in the same architect's office; Swinburne later ranked it among the three finest carols in the language.

The Spanish carol Riu Riu Chiu survives in a single 1556 songbook, kept far from Spain at which Swedish university?

Uppsala University Library holds the only known copy of the songbook, printed in Venice in 1556, which a Spanish diplomat and music scholar rediscovered there in 1906.

Which carol's singers demand figgy pudding and vow they 'won't go until we get some'?

We Wish You a Merry Christmas comes from England's West Country, where carollers were given treats at the door and 'figgy pudding' meant a raisin or plum pudding, figs optional.

James Lord Pierpont, the composer of Jingle Bells, was the uncle of which famous American financier?

J. P. Morgan carried the family name in the middle: the banker was John Pierpont Morgan, nephew of the songwriter.

The 'calling birds' in The Twelve Days of Christmas were originally 'colly birds', meaning what colour?

Black as coal is what 'colly' meant in regional English, a word that may also have named the collie dog; 'calling' birds only arrived in a 1909 version.

Which 1990 film features Carol of the Bells and O Holy Night beside its theme, Somewhere in My Memory?

Home Alone leans on traditional Christmas music throughout, and its composer conducted his own arrangement of the first of those carols for the soundtrack album.

Which 1965 TV special ends with children singing Hark! The Herald Angels Sing around a small tree?

A Charlie Brown Christmas closes on a deliberately imperfect take: its makers wanted the choir's kids to sound like kids, so a slightly off-key version made the final cut.

In We Three Kings, the refrain's 'star of wonder' leads the travellers in which compass direction?

Westward leading, still proceeding, runs the refrain, as it must for kings who come from the Orient. John Henry Hopkins Jr. wrote the carol for a seminary Christmas pageant.

In the second verse of Silent Night, how do the shepherds react 'at the sight'?

Quake is the standard word, though some English versions print 'shepherds quail' instead; either way the first witnesses are frightened, not delighted.

In the Ukrainian original of Carol of the Bells, which bird flies into a home to promise prosperity?

A swallow brings the good news in Shchedryk; the bells arrived only in 1936, when Peter Wilhousky wrote English words because the tune reminded him of handbells.

Which duo's 1966 track sets Silent Night against a newsreader reading the day's headlines?

Simon & Garfunkel called it 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night; the bulletin grows louder as the carol plays, and its stories were real events from the summer of 1966.

In The Twelve Days of Christmas, which gift comes between the calling birds and the geese?

Gold rings is the older wording; 'golden rings' spread widely after a 1961 recording.

The refrain of God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen promises 'tidings of' which pair of blessings?

Comfort and joy became so tied to the carol that it is also known simply as Tidings of Comfort and Joy.

The refrain of The Holly and the Ivy pairs 'the rising of the sun' with the running of which animal?

The deer shares the refrain with 'the playing of the merry organ' and 'sweet singing in the choir', while the verses crown holly above every other tree in the wood.

In the first verse of Away in a Manger, the little Lord Jesus is 'asleep on' what?

The hay is all the bed he gets, since the opening line gives him 'no crib'; a 1996 Gallup poll ranked the carol joint second among Britain's favourites.

Which phrase forms the famous long-drawn chorus of Angels We Have Heard on High?

Gloria in excelsis Deo means 'Glory to God in the highest'; in the carol the single 'o' of Gloria is sustained through a rising and falling run of 16 notes.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel appears in many carol books but is strictly a hymn for which church season?

Advent hymns look ahead rather than celebrate, which is why the opening verse begs Emmanuel to come and 'ransom captive Israel'.

At the end of In the Bleak Midwinter, what does the speaker give instead of a shepherd's lamb?

My heart ends the poem, after the speaker imagines what a shepherd or a wise man would bring; choirmasters voted one choral setting of it the best carol in a 2008 poll.

In the second verse of Jingle Bells, which passenger 'was seated by my side' on the ride?

Miss Fanny Bright shares the ride until the animal, 'lean and lank', blunders into a drifted bank and the pair get 'upsot', an old form of upset.

In Deck the Halls, what are revellers being told to do when they 'troll' the ancient carol?

Sing it heartily is the sense: since the 1570s 'troll' has meant to sing in a full, rolling voice, a usage that grew out of singing rounds.

Which rock group's 1996 debut album featured Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24, a medley of two carols?

Trans-Siberian Orchestra began as a side project of the metal band Savatage, who first released the piece in 1995; it fuses God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen with Carol of the Bells.

Lowell Mason's tune for Joy to the World was credited as coming 'from' which composer?

Handel was the name printed over the tune, called Antioch; Mason's 1848 edition was the fourth version of it to be published.

Which Victorian composer adapted 'Noel', the tune sung in Britain to It Came Upon the Midnight Clear?

Arthur Sullivan, the composer half of Gilbert and Sullivan, adapted Noel from an English melody; elsewhere the words go to a different tune, Carol, by Richard Storrs Willis.

The word 'Noel', sung in countless carols, came through Old French from an older word meaning what?

Birth is the root idea: Noel descends from natalis dies, 'birth day', the Church's term for the birthday of Christ.

The saint behind Good King Wenceslas was stabbed to death in a plot by which relative?

His brother Boleslav invited him to a feast, where three companions fell on him; legend remembers the plotter as Boleslaus the Cruel.

Edward White Benson, who devised the Nine Lessons and Carols service, later rose to which office?

Archbishop of Canterbury from 1883, Benson had designed the service to draw revellers out of the pubs and into church on Christmas Eve.

Which folk-rock band sang the Latin carol Gaudete unaccompanied into the UK top 20 in 1973?

Steeleye Span reached No. 14, and on Top of the Pops they followed a troupe of dancers in medieval-style robes who walked on carrying candles.

Which English musician took an instrumental In dulci jubilo to number 4 in the UK singles chart?

Mike Oldfield built his hit on Robert Pearsall's choral arrangement of the carol, and it peaked in the first weeks of 1976.

Which exiled cellist made the Catalan Christmas song El cant dels ocells famous around the world?

Pablo Casals played it at the United Nations in 1971 after a short speech titled I Am a Catalan, having vowed not to return to Spain until democracy was restored.

John Jacob Niles built I Wonder as I Wander from a fragment a girl sang him in 1933 in which region?

Appalachia gave him only a fragment: the girl sang it seven times at a quarter a go in Murphy, North Carolina, and he composed the rest himself.

O Come, All Ye Faithful was once nicknamed after which country, whose London embassy sang it?

Portugal lent its name after the Duke of Leeds heard the carol at the embassy in 1795; a Portuguese king, John IV, was even floated as its author.

In the familiar opening couplet of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, the angels sing 'Glory to' whom?

The newborn King arrived with George Whitefield, who rewrote the opening couplet; the earlier text had praised 'the King of Kings' instead.

The opening line of O Come, All Ye Faithful calls worshippers to come in which mood?

Joyful and triumphant has even been read as code: one theory holds the hymn was a call for Jacobites to rally to Bonnie Prince Charlie.

In O Holy Night, what are listeners commanded to do just before they 'hear the angel voices'?

Fall on your knees opens the chorus of John Sullivan Dwight's English version, which swapped the original's 'Await your deliverance' for 'O hear the angel voices'.

Which singer-songwriter gave the royalties of his 2009 album Christmas in the Heart to charity?

Bob Dylan signed away his royalties in perpetuity to charities including the World Food Programme; the track list mixes hymns, carols and popular Christmas songs.

In which country did a 1586 papal bull order the nine days of masses behind Las Posadas processions?

Mexico still keeps the nine nights: processions sing their request for lodging at a neighbour's door, and each evening ends with carols and a star-shaped piñata.

Which a cappella group recorded Mary, Did You Know? for the 2014 album That's Christmas to Me?

Pentatonix were reviving words that began in 1984 as questions Mark Lowry scripted for his church's Christmas program; Buddy Greene set them to music in 1991.

Which 1864 song by Benjamin Hanby is called the first Christmas song centred on Santa Claus?

Up on the Housetop is reckoned the second-oldest secular Christmas song after Jingle Bells, and its rooftop landing probably came from the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas.

Greek children go from house to house singing kalanda carols while playing which small instrument?

A triangle rings along on three different eves of the season, and the word kalanda itself goes back to the Roman calends.

Which Spanish word for a once-broader song form now means simply 'Christmas carol'?

Villancicos were popular songs on rustic themes from the late 15th century, later written in enormous numbers for church feasts of every kind, not only Christmas.

Which bank's tongue-in-cheek Christmas Price Index costs out the gifts in The Twelve Days of Christmas?

PNC treats it as a playful economic indicator and also works out 'The True Cost of Christmas', the bill for all 364 items the verses add up to.

In the first verse of Joy to the World, what are the faithful urged to 'prepare Him'?

Room is the request, straight after 'Let Earth receive her King'; the hymn was first published under the far less festive title The Messiah's Coming and Kingdom.

Which hymn-writer wrote the words of Good King Wenceslas in 1853 with music editor Thomas Helmore?

John Mason Neale ignored the old melody's original words entirely: his tale of the king and his page bears no relation to the text the tune once carried.

Whose 1909 setting of In the Bleak Midwinter was named best carol in a 2008 poll of choirmasters?

Harold Darke wrote it while still a music student, as an anthem for a trained choir rather than a congregation.

Which composer wrote the carol Bethlehem Down in 1927 to pay for a Christmas drinking spree?

Peter Warlock and the poet Bruce Blunt entered it in The Daily Telegraph's annual carol contest and won, which funded what they called an 'immortal carouse'.

Which German composer wrote the 1609 harmonisation still sung for Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming?

Michael Praetorius's harmony became the standard, and a canon for four voices built on it is sometimes credited to his contemporary Melchior Vulpius.

Which Oxford college keeps the Boar's Head Carol alive with an annual Boar's Head Gaudy and dinner?

The Queen's College custom was once explained by a tall tale: a student walking in Shotover forest with his Aristotle was attacked by a wild boar, and the feast honours his valour.

The hymn tune Cranbrook, once sung to While Shepherds Watched, is now best known as which folk song?

On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at, Yorkshire's unofficial anthem, borrowed a tune that a cobbler, Thomas Clark, had published in 1805 for a different hymn altogether.

What were Britain's official town musicians called, a name later given to bands singing carols for money?

Waits once patrolled British towns at night and woke people on dark winter mornings; an 1835 act abolished them, but the name lived on for Christmas carol bands.

In which Puerto Rican Christmas tradition do friends surprise a sleeping household with live music?

Parranda means party or spree; the ambush itself is nicknamed an asalto navideño, a 'Christmas assault', and its songs are secular rather than religious.

Angels from the Realms of Glory was first printed on Christmas Eve 1816 in a newspaper in which city?

Sheffield's Iris was edited by the carol's own author, a poet who had twice been imprisoned for sedition over what the paper printed.

Which composer published the Shepherd's Pipe Carol as an undergraduate and later the Candlelight Carol?

John Rutter's carols made him a fixture of Christmas services, and he was later asked to write an anthem, This Is the Day, for the royal wedding of 2011.