"Joy To The World!"

"Joy to the World!" illustrated vintage sheet music. CC.

       "Joy to the World" is a popular Christmas song. English minister Isaac Watts added the words to the song. As of the late 20th century, the song was the most published Christmas hymn in North America. The lyrics are based on Psalm 98, 96:11-12 and Genesis 3:17-18. The song was first published in Watts' collection The Psalms of David in 1719.
       The version of this hymn heard since 1848 is from an edition by Lowell Mason for The National Psalmist. It was his fourth revision of the tune he named ANTIOCH.
       A version from the Trinity Choir was very popular in 1911. Since then, the song has been recorded by a number of artists, including Johnny Cash, Mariah Carey, Pat Boone, Ella Fitzgerald, The Supremes and Nat King Cole.

• "Joy To The World" sung live at the Helix in Dublin by Celtic Women
• Pentatonix sing "Joy To The World from their new holiday album "Evergreen"
• Mariah Carey sings "Joy to the World" live at St. John the Divine
• "Joy to the World" Advent, Christmas and Epiphany traditional hymn version by Concordia Publishing House
• David Phelps sings "Joy to the World" and "For Unto Us A Son Is Born" from his Christmas With David Phelps" CD

Thomas Nast's "Christmas Drawings"

        "These Christmas drawings by Nast appeal to the sympathy of no particular religious denomination or political party, but to the universal delight in the happiest of holidays, consecrated by the loftiest associations and endeared by the tenderest domestic traditions. Christmas is the holiday of all; but it is especially the Children's day. The grotesque and airy fancies of childhood which cling about Santa Claus, as the good genius of Christmas, are reproduced here in delightfully imaginative reality by the artist, so that visitors here may feast of true Christmas cheer." 

Santa is caught bringing Christmas joy.

The table is set for a Christmas feast!

A little girl collects her Christmas toys to move to the nursery.

Nast drew a little boy crying outside a toy store window at sign.

More Illustrations from Thomas Nast: 

• Nast's Illustration of Christingle meaning "Little Christ Child"

The Doll's Letter to Santa Claus

 The Doll's Letter to Santa Claus by Ellen Manly

She hates to let you choose it
Because you are a man,
But maybe it will suit her
If you do the best you can.

We'd like a set of dishes-
Our old one's nearly gone;
Full half the plates are broken,
And all the cups but one.
The spoons have long been missing,
And all of us agree
That forks are not convenient
When one is sipping tea.

Please bring a little carriage,
Lucille Matilda begs;
She suffers from dyspepsia
Because of broken legs.
As walking's not much pleasure
She rarely ventures out,
And feels she'd soon be better
If she could drive about.

Almira wants a necklace,
And Rosalie, a dress;
An easy-chair for Hattie,
And this is all we guess-
Not all that we could think of,
But all we should expect,
And if you'll not forget us
We are
Yours with great respect,
Louisa Arabella.
Almira Henriette.
Lucille Matilda Frances.
Ann Rosalie Lisette.
Jane Hattie Angelina.
X Stands for Baby Blue.
Marie Roberta Sue.

P.S. Private:
The children played Cowboys and Indians
On last Thanksgiving night,
And Tommy Tucker scalped me,
And made me just a fright.
So if you could remember
A curly wig for me,
I'd be your ever grateful,
Devoted,
Susy Lee.

"I Saw Three Ships" Carol

Vintage sheet music of "I Saw Three Ships" lyrics included.
from the CC.

       The earliest printed version of "I Saw Three Ships" is from the 17th century, possibly Derbyshire, and was also published by William Sandys in 1833.

       The lyrics mention the ships sailing into Bethlehem, but the nearest body of water is the Dead Sea about 20 miles away. The reference to three ships is thought to originate in the three ships that bore the purported relics of the Biblical magi to Cologne Cathedral in the 12th century. Another possible reference is to Wenceslaus II, King of Bohemia, who bore a coat of arms "Azure three galleys argent". Another thought was the three kings that came to baby Jesus.

       An arrangement by Martin Shaw appears in The Oxford Book of Carols. The Carols for Choirs series of carol books features an arrangement of the carol by Sir David Willcocks. Organist Simon Preston and former conductor of the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Sir Philip Ledger, have also written arrangements that the choir have performed at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in recent years. This carol is also featured in the musical Caroline, or Change, but as a counterpoint. Adapted by Jon Schmidt on Jon Schmidt Christmas album. John Renbourn has arranged it (in a rather free adaptation) for guitar. The song appears on Nat King Cole's 1960 LP "The Magic Of Christmas" (l/k/a "The Christmas Song"), arranged by Ralph Carmichael. Progressive rock singer Jon Anderson released a version as the title track of his album 3 Ships in 1985. Sufjan Stevens recorded a version of the song in 4/4 time for his album Hark!: Songs for Christmas, Vol. II. Wikipedia

"Rare video featuring Marianne and The Chieftains 

performing the song 'I Saw Three Ships A Sailing'. From 

the Chieftains 1991 CD 'Bells Of Dublin'."

The "Jingle Bells" Carol

Vintage sheet music of "Jingle Bells" with lyrics, CC.

       "Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and commonly sung American songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822 -1893) and published under the title "The One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857. It has been claimed that it was originally written to be sung by a Sunday school choir, or as a drinking song. Although it has no original connection to Christmas, it became associated with Christmas music and the holiday season in the 1860s and 1870s, and it was featured in a variety of parlor song and college anthologies in the 1880s. It was first recorded in 1889 on an Edison cylinder; this recording, believed to be the first Christmas record, is lost, but an 1898 recording also from Edison Records survives.
       It is an unsettled question where and when Pierpont originally composed the song that would become known as "Jingle Bells". A plaque at 19 High Street in the center of Medford Square in Medford, Massachusetts, commemorates the "birthplace" of "Jingle Bells", and claims that Pierpont wrote the song there in 1850, at what was then the Simpson Tavern. Previous local history narratives claim the song was inspired by the town's popular sleigh races during the 19th century.
       "Jingle Bells" was originally copyrighted with the name "The One Horse Open Sleigh" on September 16, 1857. The song was first performed on 15 September 1857 at Ordway Hall in Boston by the minstrel performer Johnny Pell. Pierpont's lyrics are strikingly similar to lines from many other sleigh-riding songs that were popular at the time; researcher Kyna Hamill argued that this, along with his constant need for money, led him to compose and release the song solely as a financial enterprise: "Everything about the song is churned out and copied from other people and lines from other songs - there's nothing original about it."
       By the time the song was released and copyrighted, Pierpont had relocated to Savannah, Georgia to serve as organist and music director of that city's Unitarian Universalist Church, where his brother, Rev. John Pierpont Jr. served as Minister. In August 1857, Pierpont married Eliza Jane Purse, the daughter of the mayor of Savannah. Pierpont remained in Savannah and never went back North.
       The double-meaning of "upsot" was thought humorous, and a sleigh ride gave an unescorted couple a rare chance to be together, unchaperoned, in distant woods or fields, with all the opportunities that afforded. This "upset", a term Pierpont transposed to "upsot", became the climactic component of a sleigh-ride outing within the sleigh narrative.

"Jingle Bells" by Kimié Miner