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When my children were in grade school, we hosted several caroling parties in December. Family and friends would pile into the house, and I’d hand out little songbooks I had put together. After a short practice session in the living room, where I could see the Cathedral from the window, we would set out into the neighborhood. We stopped at houses along the way, including the rectory and the bishop’s house, before ending at Sheltering Arms, a senior residence in Norwich.
The night always ended back at home with mugs of hot chocolate and slow cookers filled with steaming soups and stews. What I remember most, though, was my friend Gary. Whenever there was a pause in the singing, he would loudly and exuberantly launch into Silent Night and then, just as quickly, break into Joy to the World. I think we sang those two songs at least a dozen times along our route. Those two carols were his favorites, and his joyful voice never failed to pull the rest of us right back into song. Those are fond memories that return each time I hear either melody.
Perhaps that is why, when I discovered the podcast Hark! The Stories Behind Our Favorite Christmas Carols, I was hooked immediately. The show began in 2021 and, with 20 episodes so far, has uncovered the origins and meanings of the songs that have shaped our Christmases for centuries. Listening, I knew right away I wanted to share it with you. What follows are just a few examples of the fascinating history behind these carols, but the podcast also explores their musicality and lasting power.
Silent Night — A Song Born of Brokenness
On Christmas Eve in 1818, in the small Austrian village of Oberndorf, the church organ had broken down. Faced with celebrating Mass without music, Father Joseph Mohr handed a poem he had written to his friend Franz Gruber, a schoolteacher and musician. Gruber quickly set it to a melody that could be played on guitar. That night, Silent Night was sung for the very first time.
What began in obscurity soon spread across Europe and the world. By 1839, it was being sung in New York City. During World War I, soldiers on both sides of the trenches joined voices in Silent Night during the Christmas truce, a rare moment of peace during war.
As one guest on Hark! put it, the carol’s very simplicity—built on just three chords—draws us into the quiet wonder of the Christ Child. Sometimes the gentlest songs carry the greatest power.
O Holy Night — From Banned Hymn to Anthem
If Silent Night whispers peace, O Holy Night raises the rafters. Yet when it was first written in France in 1847, church leaders banned it from Mass for being too theatrical. The people, however, kept singing it.
The hymn gained new life when American minister John Sullivan Dwight translated it into English. An ardent abolitionist, Dwight emphasized the stirring line: “Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother.” In the years leading up to the Civil War, those words gave the carol the force of a sermon.
History was made again in 1906, when O Holy Night became the first piece of music ever broadcast on radio. Imagine the wonder of hearing it drift through the airwaves for the very first time. From banned hymn to abolitionist anthem to technological milestone, it’s no wonder the song still gives us chills today.
Why These Stories Matter
What Hark! shows us is that Christmas carols aren’t just music. They are stories of faith, history, and hope handed down through generations, reinterpreted, and still alive today. A broken organ gave us Silent Night. A banned poem became O Holy Night. Together they remind us that the message of Christmas is stronger than circumstance: God’s love entering the world in surprising ways.
So, this year, when you sing these carols in church or hum them on the drive home, remember you are adding your voice to a song that has been sung in village chapels, battlefields, radio towers, and homes filled with hot chocolate and laughter. And that story still echoes with the joy of Christmas.
By Wayne Gignac