Preface 

Stop and think about it. Have you ever heard of songs being written to commemorate a baby’s birth? Any songs about the birth of Alexander the Great, Napoleon, or Gandhi? When a modern royal has a baby, it makes the news for a few days, but there are no songs about that baby. Now imagine this: What if you did not know that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of songs have been written about the birth of Jesus? Then someone told you this was so. Would you be curious to know why?

Obviously, Jesus was no ordinary baby. But His birth in an obscure Middle Eastern village in poorest of circumstances was not what you might expect of one for whom songs are written. These are songs that have been sung over and over for millennia and that are a part of almost every language and culture. Perhaps this is something important for you to discover and know.

This book is only a small collection of those songs. But it is representative of the best that have prevailed over time and have become a major part of our celebration of Christ’s birth, known as Christmas. Luke 2:19 says that after the visit by the shepherds, Jesus’ mother, Mary, “treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Most of us are a lot better at doing than pondering. This book is for both pondering and doing (singing). These songs are like a picture album of the story of our blessed Lord Jesus. From them, you can treasure the amazing events that surround His birth. You can ponder them as each hymn writer unfolds a slightly different picture or perspective. You can more deeply think about what they mean to you today than you can in the midst of a service or concert of Christmas music.

You can read all the forty-three songs in one or two sittings. Or you can focus on one hymn per day, spending ten minutes being fed by the testimonies of many Christian hymn writers. This practice will ensure these songs and their stories ring deeply in your heart of affection for the incarnate Son of God. Each day you or your family can choose a Christmas hymn to sing together and ponder the story.

There are dozens of Advent-Christmas devotional books available to believers; however, in this collection, forty-three authors share their spiritual view of Christmas—simple, brief, but powerful words about a birth and the surrounding circumstances.

Think about how many Christmas hymns you know beyond the first stanza. Here, you may learn all the stanzas. You’ll find some new, or less familiar, hymns; however, all the Christmas hymns in this book are songs that every Christian should know and sing. Each hymn has been chosen for its singability and depth of meaning. A few may have poetic sentimentality more than strict biblical accuracy, but for centuries they have comprised our Christmas canon of songs.

This collection covers the church or Christian calendar for this season. Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas and includes the days between the fourth Sunday and Christmas Day. Therefore, you can observe the Advent season for anywhere from twenty-two to twenty-eight days. For that reason, the dates listed for each hymn cover the longest potential Advent season of any year’s calendar. (So some years you will have more devotionals than the season measures.) Christmas and Christmastide continue until January 6, the twelfth day of Christmas, or Epiphany. The hymns that are obviously Advent, Nativity, or Epiphany texts, however, will overlap the calendar designations. What we call Christmas in general encompasses a forty-three-day-long observation and celebration.

Since knowing about the author of a book generally helps you understand the book, brief biographies of the authors and composers have been included to place their poetic and melodic testimony in the time and circumstances of their lives. The author of a hymn’s words was not always the composer of the music. The melodies often have their own title, specified through ALL CAPS.

Following each biography is a brief devotional on the hymn text called, “As you sing this hymn.” These sections aren’t titled “as you read this hymn” but “as you sing” because Scripture repeatedly says we should sing to the Lord. Sing if you are alone or with others. Sing even if you feel like you do not sing well. To make this easier for you and your family, the hymns have been recorded in two formats: with singers, and with piano only, so you can sing along. The recording features two adults and three children—like the sound of a family. You can purchase this recording on most streaming services, such as Spotify or iTunes, or you can purchase the songs on other user-friendly formats at hosannahymnals.com. A book containing the piano arrangements for all the hymns on the recording is also available. Sing along during your family devotional time! Sing when you’re preparing a meal! Sing along on a car trip!

Are these Christmas hymns or Christmas carols? Yes. They are both! As hymns, they are songs of the story and the theology of the incarnation—the Son of God becoming man. They also are carols of joy, celebration, and even dance—one definition of a carol.² Both words will be used interchangeably. These are the testimonies and convictions of saints through seventeen centuries of worship—from the fourth century through the twenty-first century. They cross most denominational and generational barriers. They answer the ubiquitous questions of what, who, when, and why. They quote the Bible and, at times, also interpret it for us. But most of all, they provide rich and beautiful words for our worship of the God who sent His Son to earth.

Our prayer is that this book will serve as an enduring and inspiring gift from parents to children or family and friends, to those who are on your Christmas card list, or from a church to its members. In giving this book away, you are sharing great treasures you love as well as treasures you have just discovered. The hymns themselves are timeless gifts that began in the heart of someone who was devoted to Christ and wrote down that conviction in beautiful poetry. Now these gifts are being passed on through us to generations yet unborn. May God bless your Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany seasons.