On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me......

.......The twelve days of a large family Christmas.
 As most of you have heard the original song, I thought I would post this one. Its quite amusing and actually quite true if you have a  large family. Enjoy and Merry Christmas.

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me........

......Silent night.
 This song  has an interesting story behind its writing which I would like to share with you. In 1818, at the Obendorf bei Salzberg, a church in Austria, it was Christmas. There had been a violent snow storm and there was no way for people to get far. Then the organ broke. Because of the snow storm no one could come out and fix it and if there was no organ the parish children feared there would be no Christmas carols for their annual Christmas eve service. And so, on the twenty third of December, a day before the Christmas eve service, Joseph Mohr, who was pastor of the church, gave these beautiful lyrics to the organist Franz Gruber and told him to compose a melody to it that could be sung to a guitar. Gruber stayed up late that night and composed for the poem the soft and dreamy melody that we now know as Silent night.

  The video I post below is not as good as I wanted, but I wished to spend as little time as possible searching for videos today.  However, it was still well done. Merry Christmas!

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me.....

......Ding Dong merrrily on high.

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me....

......On Christmas night. The Sussex carol.
 This is a lovely Christmas carol, which, as with the previous one, I learned the tune long before I knew there were any words! I have heard much better arrangements for this song than the one below, but it will at least give you an idea of what it is like if you don't already know it.

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me.....

.....In the bleak midwinter.
 This old and beautiful tune is one that I have known for a long time, but just recently learned the title. The words are lovely too. I didn't know this song had words either until recently.
                                                                                    

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

 

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

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.

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me.....

.....Let all mortal flesh keep silence.
   This beautiful old hymn is one that makes you feel transported when arranged correctly. As today is my Mother's birthday, I saved this one for this day as it is her favorite Christmas song. Enjoy!

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me......

.....Good king Wenceslas. 
   This old carol was written about a king who goes to feed a poor man on the feast of saint Stephen. During the journey, the page, who accompanies him, is about to give up because of the cold, but is enabled to continue by following step for step in the king's foot prints. The song ends with a biblical principal by saying, " you who now will bless the poor, will yourselves find blessing."  The king was modeled after a real king, Saint Wenceslas I,  Duke of Bohemia. He was known for His goodness and after his death in 935, he was called a martyr and and a whole sect grew up around him. They exaggerated his goodness to the point where he was considered not just a prince, but the father of all the wretched. Although Wenceslas was, during his lifetime, only a duke, Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, conferred on him the regal dignity of a king, and that is why, in  legends and songs, he is referred to as a "king".  So below is a very good rendition of the song, and in case you can not understand the words, I will post them below.
                                                                                            

Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even.
Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, gathering winter fuel.

“Hither, page, and stand by me, if you know it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?”
“Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain,
Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes’ fountain.”

“Bring me food and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither,
You and I will see him dine, when we bear them thither.”
Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together,
Through the cold wind’s wild lament and the bitter weather.

“Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger,
Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer.”
“Mark my footsteps, my good page, tread now in them boldly,
You shall find the winter’s rage freeze your blood less coldly.”

In his master’s steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,
You who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing.