Christmas Carol - God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen

Merry Christmas Day to everyone who visits I Prefer Reading. This is one of my favourite carols. I love the power of the words & the majesty & drama of the traditional organ accompaniment with a full choir singing at the top of their voices. In Dickens's A Christmas Carol, this is the carol that the boy sings at Scrooge's door on Christmas Eve. The picture is from this lovely blog, Be Book Bound. As Miriam & Erika say, may we always be book bound.

God rest you merry, gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ our Saviour
Was born upon this day,
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray:


O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy.

From God our heavenly Father
A blessed angel came
And unto certain shepherds
Brought tidings of the same,
How that in Bethlehem was born
The Son of God by name:


O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy.

The shepherds at those tidings
Rejoiced much in mind,
And left their flocks a-feeding,
In tempest, storm and wind,
And went to Bethlehem straightway
This blessed babe to find:


O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy.

But when to Bethlehem they came,
Whereat this infant lay,
They found him in a manger,
Where oxen feed on hay;
His mother Mary kneeling,
Unto the Lord did pray:


O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy.

Now to the Lord sing praises,
All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All others doth deface:


O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy.