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Same manger, different tune

Okay, that feels more Christmassy. We had the carol service in our local church Sunday and it set the mood just fine.

After all this time, I think I’ve finally adjusted to their carols. It was hard because some of them are the same as ours, but sung to a completely different tune.

Case in point: Away in the Manger, our version; Away in a Manger, Brit version.

That’s not our local church, by the way. That’s the cathedral in…York, I think. Ours is nearly that old, but it’s a funny little country church. It’s almost always a muddy tromp across the sheep fields and I love that most people turn up to church in jeans and wellies.

The picture is the first one that turned up on a search of “Church of England Carol Service.” And if you think that’s lazy, the next two weeks will astonish you!

Comments


Comment from Deborah HH
Time: December 18, 2018, 2:44 am

Do you have a favorite English Christmas carol? Maybe one that you didn’t learn until you moved to England?


Comment from dissent555
Time: December 18, 2018, 6:12 am

A list of the oldest Christmas songs –

http://www.oldest.org/religion/christmas-songs/

Oldest.org.
Had no idea there was such a place, but I’m hardly surprised.


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: December 18, 2018, 12:31 pm

I’m still waiting for one about Odin. Traditionalists, us badgers.


Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: December 18, 2018, 4:17 pm

Mrs. Vegetable is a Japanese girl, of course, but she has taken on this whole Christmas season thing with enthusiasm. The decorations started cropping up around the house the day after Thanksgiving, and I’m fine with that. And she loves home-made Christmas Cookies and so I’ve baked five or six dozen of various sorts, and even did a golden fruitcake that is currently still steeping in Cointreau. Hardy anything to complain about there.

But … the Christmas music… is starting to get TO me. We do a lot of music streaming with Amazon Prime, and they really do have a rather large selection of Christmas Music. However there are simply not enough Christmas music recordings in existence to cover 10 or 12 hours a day for the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Being retired, I’m home with her and her music all day long as she happily hums along. Most of it is beautiful, and I like it but…

Well: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-40090809

Too much of a good thing is TOO MUCH.

And if I hear “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch“ one more time, someone is going to get hurt. As in stuffed up a chimney.

There. I feel better.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: December 18, 2018, 7:57 pm

I feel your pain. I really detest a lot of Christmas music. You know, the modern “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” kind of thing. Love the old carols, though. And Uncle B is into early music, so our Christmas fare is Vivaldi and Corelli and like that.

I’m not aware that I’ve picked up any particular ones in England, Deborah. When we picked out music for our wedding, we leaned toward pagan-y hymns about, you know, that sun and the birds and stuff. I’m partial to songs like the Holly and the Ivy, for example.


Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: December 18, 2018, 8:47 pm

“Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!”
~
RIP Penny Marshall and I hope Rob Reiner is very uncomfortable for the rest of his miserable life.


Comment from DurnedYankee
Time: December 18, 2018, 8:54 pm

Shoot, I thought it was a cut scene from Witcher.

And Christmas Carols?

When did “Last Christmas I gave you my heart” become a Flucking Christmas song?

My lord but I’m learning to hate these follow-on generations.

Then again, we had a whiny rich guy singing to us about “So this is Christmas” during the holidays, and lecturing us with “Imagine No possessions, how horrible” during the other seasons.


Comment from Mark Matis
Time: December 18, 2018, 10:17 pm

Yeah, DunedYankee, but that whiny rich guy was married to Yoko Ono, so every day he lived was hell on earth.


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: December 18, 2018, 11:01 pm

I like the Christmas songs popular in the war years:

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
I’ll Be Home For Christmas
White Christmas

and Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel


Comment from beasn
Time: December 20, 2018, 3:36 am

I prefer ‘our’ version.

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