Anyone who knows me knows that Christmas is my favorite season and that my husband extends it as long as he can and never ceases to sing Christmas carols regardless of the time of year. Guess that makes it easy to know who is coming down the hallway at school.
Christmas holds my favorite memories and one of my very favorites is the Christmas Eve service at church and, even today more than 10 years after her death, I can hear my grandmother's voice singing next to me, making it difficult to get through the songs but that doesn't stop me from loving the songs. How did we get these songs? You may or may not be surprised to know that most didn't begin as Christmas carols. Some had words while others were only tunes with words added later. But each of the 21 well known and loved carols has a story behind it. Andrew Gant has done the research for us and his new book The Carols of Christmas: A Celebration of the Surprising Stories Behind Your Favorite Holiday Songs contains all you could want to know about songs from Advent to Christmas Day and beyond. In each case, the history includes a copy of the music and, in some cases, a copy of the manuscript of the original score or words by the composer or author or a historical image that goes along with the song.
The volume is hardback but the paper more like the type found in a paperback volume. I must admit that some of my favorites weren't included but that may very well be because Gant focused on English carols. Gant is thorough in his explanation of the history of the song which may get a bit long for some if it isn't a song you love. For me, that song will always be The Twelve Days of Christmas which is included. Each story is somewhere between 5-10 pages so I wouldn't recommend necessarily reading the volume from cover to cover in a few days. I think it might be better used looking at each song as a short story and read one, ponder on it for awhile, then maybe read another. Perhaps use it each evening as a family time during Advent to learn together.
Carols include: O Come, O Come Emmanuel, O, Christmas Tree, The Holly and the Ivy, I Saw Three Ships, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Good Christian Men Rejoice, O Come All Ye Faithful, While Shepherds Watched, O Holy Night, Ding Dong! Merrily on High, Angels From the Realm of Glory, Hark the Herald..., Away in a Manger, I Wonder as I Wonder, Good King Wincelas, Personet hodie, Here We Come a-Wassailing, The Twelve Days of Christmas, We Three Kings, What Child is This?, and Jingle Bells.
I did receive this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review and was in no way obligated to leave a positive one.
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