In December, Christmas music is nearly inescapable and most Americans enjoy it.
According to a recent study by LifeWay Research, 70 percent of Americans enjoy hearing Christmas songs in December and 86 percent of people believe school choirs and bands should be allowed to perform religious Christmas music.
However, in the November 2012 online survey of 1,191 Americans, one in five Americans (21 percent) said the prevalence of Christmas music in December is "overdone" while seven percent find it "annoying."
LifeWay Research director Scott McConnell was impressed by the results considering how ubiquitous Christmas music is this time of year....
This song is sung best by an opera singer, (Pavarotti no! ) I thought this song might originally have been in French since there is at least one YouTube version in French out there. I will tell you one thing, most operas are better to listen to, when you can't understand them! ) I really don't see too much bad about the lyrics, Oh Holy Night - Lyrics, but perhaps I need to look into them more. But really I don't much care who wrote them but it is the accuracy of the lyrics that count, You will find many people saying this about Erasmus, His Greek Text and His Theology--and who won't like this commentary.
I want Anna Moffo's English version of this song! which I haven't found anywhere, but as I said, O Holy Night -- Kate Smith (YouTube), is really a well executed example of how the song should be done. I just wish a little more modern equipment could have been used to record it.
Merry/Happy Christmas depending from what part of the Anglophone world you're from, and always a thoughtful one wherever you are.
'Led by the light of faith serenely beaming, With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand. O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming, Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land. The King of kings lay thus lowly manger; In all our trials born to be our friends.
The lyrics seem a bit ambiguous as though the wisemen are visiting the manger?
Even worse note how O'Holy Night was fashioned: In 1847, a French Catholic Priest commissioned a Christmas poem from local winemaker Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure, who later left the Catholic church and became a socialist?
Is that true?
Also we need to remember: Jesus is not a baby. He is the risen and exalted King of Heaven and Earth. He was a baby, but is not anymore. Therefore we cannot worship "baby Jesus." Any attempt to do so would be to erect a false deity based on Jesus when he was a baby. This is exactly what many of the Carols associated with Christmas/Nativity call us to do ("Come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King").
Say, I've been looking around for a recording of Anna Moffo singing "Oh, Holy Night." This should be handled like an Operatic aria, by a good opera singer, Yes, Kate Smith did a good job, O Holy Night -- Kate Smith (YouTube) and the Kid, Jackie Evancho in HD "O Holy Night" at the National Christmas Tree Lighting. Hey the Kid (and she was probably 10 years old?) when she did this, has a deeper voice than Kate, but a lot less lung power. Unfortunately, Kate's recording isn't the greatest quality.
Anyway, I'm sure Anna did a rendition of this song, and just about blasted the walls out of the concert hall! This is the proper way that it should be done, but I can't find a recording of it. Oh, Kate and Jackie both had one other excellent quality many others didn't or don't, they enunciated the lyrics very well.
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) I thought this song might originally have been in French since there is at least one YouTube version in French out there. I will tell you one thing, most operas are better to listen to, when you can't understand them! 
) I really don't see too much bad about the lyrics, 
john uk from wales: "
lurker
apparently i have a reading comprehension problem..."
