Notes on the Notes – December 24, 2025
Christmas Eve
Service music:
“A Candle is Burning” (VU #6 v 5)
“We honour Messiah with Christ-candle’s flame,
Our Christmas Eve candles glad tidings proclaim.
O come, all you faithful, rejoice in this night,
As God comes among us, the Christian’s true light.”
As we light the Christ candle in our Advent wreath we will sing the words written by Sandra Dean (1986) with music written for the carol “Away in a Manger” by James R. Murray (1887).
Hear an instrumental version of the tune at: https://youtu.be/gVWdAaNXg6c
“See Amid the Winter’s Snow“ (VU #76)
See amid the winter’s snow, born for us on earth below,
See, the tender Lamb appears, promised from eternal years.
Hail, thou ever-blessed morn; hail, redemption’s happy dawn;
Sing through all Jerusalem, Christ is born in Bethlehem.
Say, ye holy shepherds, say what your joyful news today;
Wherefore have ye left your sheep on the lonely mountain steep?
Hail, thou ever-blessed morn; hail, redemption’s happy dawn;
Sing through all Jerusalem, Christ is born in Bethlehem.
“As we watched at dead of night, lo, we saw a wondrous light;
Angels singing ‘Peace on earth’ told us of the Saviour’s birth.”
Hail, thou ever-blessed morn; hail, redemption’s happy dawn;
Sing through all Jerusalem, Christ is born in Bethlehem.“
“See, amid the Winter’s Snow” is an English Christmas carol. It was written by Edward Caswall (1814–1878), with music composed by Sir John Goss (1800–1880), and published in 1871. It was selected to be included in “Christmas Carols Old and New” as one of the carols that had “proved their hold upon the popular mind”.
Hear the Cambridge Choir of King’s College at: https://youtu.be/fPgo-UfyJgc
“Still, Still, Still” (VU #47 v3)
“Joy, joy, joy; glad tidings of great joy!
For through God’s holy incarnation Christ is born for our salvation.
Joy, joy, joy; glad tidings of great joy!”
“Still, Still, Still” is an Austrian Christmas carol and lullaby. The melody is a folk tune (authorship unknown) from the State of Salzburg. The tune appeared for the first time in 1865 in a folksong collection of Maria Vinzenz Süß (1802-1868), founder of the Salzburg Museum; it has changed slightly over the years but remains attributed to G. Götsch. Tonight we will be using the third verse of the carol as printed in Voices United as our response to the Words of Assurance.
See a version of the carol at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGohh1gGTug&list=RDtGohh1gGTug&start_radio=1
To hear the carol sung in German, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_ZgDLCf4QQ
“God, Bless us, Your Children” (tune VU #69)
“God, bless us, your children, for dark is the night;
and help us prepare for the dawn of your light.
Renew our cold spirits and kindle our hearts,
to shine with the hope that your promise imparts.
Awaken us, God, to the light of your dawn,
The Day of your grace which is hastening on.
Now open our eyes to the true, perfect light
That shines in all things, that we too may burn bright.
Your coming, Emmanuel, now we embrace,
Your peace with all creatures, your promise of grace.
Our Word is made flesh and your blessing you give,
That we, too, in peace with all others may live.
We pray that your Word may be born in our hearts,
That we may shine bright with the joy it imparts.
We pray as we honour Emmanuel’s birth
That the light of our hope may illumine the earth.”
We will be using the four verses of this hymn as a sung response to the scripture readings, reflections and prayers. The melody is the familiar “Away in a Manger,” tune CRADLE SONG (VU #69)
“Silent Night” (VU #67)
“Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.
Silent night! Holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight;
Glories stream from heaven afar;
Heavenly hosts sing Hallelujah,
Christ the Saviour is born, Christ the Saviour is born.
Silent night! Holy night!
Son of God, love’s pure light;
Radiant beams from thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth. Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.”
“Silent Night” (German: “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht”) was composed in 1818 by Franz Xavier Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Obendorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2011. It is the world’s most recorded Christmas song, with more than 137,000 known recordings.
See the carol with ASL translation at: https://youtu.be/3NtlsXCBb1g
See the Three Tenors at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjhVI4Q0Vfc
To hear Carrie Underwood’s version of the song, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vw–yxcDNM
“In the Bleak Midwinter” (VU #55 v. 4)
“What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give him—give my heart.“
In 1872, poet Christina Rossetti imaginatively placed the holy birth not in warm Bethlehem, but in her chillier and snow-bound native England. Her poem first appeared as a hymn with Gustav Holst’s setting in 1906. We will be using the fourth verse of the carol as our Offering response.
See Quire Cleveland perform the carol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE0aIQp9V4s
“Angels We Have Heard on High” (VU #38 v 1, 4)
“Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o’er the plains,
And the mountains in reply,
Echoing their joyous stains.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Come to Bethlehem and see Christ whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee
Christ, the Lord, the newborn King.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!”
Many years ago shepherds in the hills of southern France had a Christmas Eve custom of calling to one another, singing “Gloria in Excelsis Deo,” each from his own hillside. The traditional tune that the shepherds used may have been from a late Medieval Latin chorale. It became the magnificent chorus of “Angels We Have Heard on High.”
Hear Soundiva Classical Choir at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYVoAKvDsLU
Hear For King and Country at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V7sLV2uqIs
“Go, Tell it on the Mountain” (VU #43 chorus)
“Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere.
Go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born.”
We will be using the chorus of this well-known spiritual as our commissioning to go out and tell the Good News of Jesus’ birth. The song was known to have been sung by African American slaves as far back as at least 1865.
See Dolly Parton sing the carol in her classic Christmas special at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3nPFUh4j2OM
Sing along with Starfield at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGs0mJco9lk&feature=player_detailpage
