Author: Margaret Ashworth

TWO for the price of one today, as The Holly and the Ivy and the Sans Day Carol have similar themes. Decking homes with evergreens towards the close of the … Continue readingThe Holly and the Ivy/Sans Day Carol

TRADITIONALLY this carol is sung on Epiphany, the 12th day after Christmas, which marks the visit of some distinguished foreigners, usually called the Magi, to the infant Jesus after their … Continue readingAs with Gladness Men of Old

WHILE Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night is one of the most enduring and popular carols, and probably one of the most parodied. I am going to get my schoolgirl … Continue readingWhile Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night

NO carol concert is complete without a rousing rendition of O Come All Ye Faithful. There are many theories about its origins but I am going to give an intriguing … Continue readingO Come All Ye Faithful

THERE are several unusual aspects to We Three Kings of Orient Are. It was something of a one-hit wonder, as none of the writer’s other works had much success. It … Continue readingWe Three Kings of Orient Are

ONE of the cheeriest carols is I Saw Three Ships. It was first published in 1833 but had been around for centuries before that. Presumably it is because it is … Continue readingI Saw Three Ships

BEFORE I started writing this series, I had no idea that many of our favourite carols originated in the United States. Following O Little Town of Bethlehem, Away in a … Continue readingIt Came Upon the Midnight Clear

AT the start of Charles Dickens’s 1843 A Christmas Carol, we see Ebenezer Scrooge in his counting house on Christmas Eve. His nephew calls to ask him to lunch the … Continue readingGod rest you merry, gentlemen

THE words to this carol were written by an American Episcopal clergyman, Phillips Brooks, who was born in Boston in 1825 and educated at Harvard. For many years he was … Continue readingO little town of Bethlehem

AS requested by TCW reader Charles Dawne, today’s choice is the Coventry Carol. Mr Dawne describes it as ‘haunting’ and I agree. It is a long way from the joyful … Continue readingThe Coventry Carol