Christmas Carols with Lyrics: 12 Public-Domain Classics and Their Stories

About these carols and lyrics

Caroling is one of the oldest Christmas customs still practiced in America — singing door to door, in church, at school concerts or around the piano at home. The carols below are all old enough to be in the public domain in the United States, so you can print them for a caroling party, a classroom or a church program.

We copied each text from a historic printed edition rather than from memory, and we name the source under each one. Older hymnals sometimes differ slightly from what you hear on the radio today — a word here, a verse order there — and we point out the biggest differences. Where a carol has many verses, we give the ones most often sung.

What is not here: many favorite “Christmas songs” were written in the 20th century and are still under copyright — for example “White Christmas,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” We do not print those lyrics; see the list near the end of this page for their stories.

Silent Night (1818)

The Austrian priest Joseph Mohr wrote the German poem “Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!” in 1816. Two years later, in the village of Oberndorf near Salzburg, he asked the schoolteacher and organist Franz Xaver Gruber to set it to music, and the two first sang it at Christmas Eve Mass in 1818, with Mohr playing guitar. The carol traveled with folk singers across Europe and eventually around the world. The English words Americans know best come from John Freeman Young, an Episcopal clergyman who later became bishop of Florida; he published his translation in a small New York pamphlet, Carols for Christmas Tide, in 1859.

In Young’s 1859 pamphlet, the “Son of God” verse came second and the “Shepherds quake” verse last; most modern songbooks sing them in the order above. Mohr’s German original has six verses.

Jingle Bells (1857)

“Jingle Bells” was written by James Lord Pierpont and published in 1857 under the title “The One Horse Open Sleigh.” It was reissued in 1859 with “Jingle Bells” in the title. Surprisingly, the song never mentions Christmas — it is a lively winter song about sleigh rides and young people racing through the snow. Both Medford, Massachusetts, and Savannah, Georgia, claim to be where Pierpont wrote it, and the popular story that it was first sung at a Thanksgiving program is not well documented. In December 1965, the astronauts of Gemini 6 played it on a harmonica and small bells in orbit, making it one of the first songs performed in space.

The 1857 sheet music (held by the Library of Congress) shows how the words drifted over time. Most people today sing “O’er the fields we go,” “What fun it is to ride and sing” and “Oh what fun it is to ride,” and the modern chorus melody is a little different from Pierpont’s. The original also has three more verses — including one where the singer tips over into a snowbank with Miss Fanny Bright.

Deck the Halls (1862)

The tune is an old Welsh melody for a New Year’s Eve song, “Nos Galan.” The English words were written by the Scottish songwriter Thomas Oliphant and published in 1862 in John Thomas’s collection Welsh Melodies. Oliphant did not translate the Welsh lyrics; he wrote new ones, and his original was openly a drinking song.

Later American songbooks gave the carol its family-friendly form. The drinking lines were replaced with “Don we now our gay apparel” and “Troll the ancient Yuletide carol,” and “hall” became “halls.” (“Troul” or “troll” is an old word meaning to sing heartily, and “gay apparel” simply means festive clothes.)

O Holy Night (1847)

In 1847 the French wine merchant and poet Placide Cappeau wrote “Minuit, chrétiens” (“Midnight, Christians”), and the composer Adolphe Adam set it to music; it was first performed at a Christmas Eve midnight Mass in the town of Roquemaure. The American music critic John Sullivan Dwight made the English version in the 1850s. His translation is free rather than word for word, and its third verse — “Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother” — resonated deeply with Americans who opposed slavery in the years before the Civil War.

The second verse (“Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming…”) is often skipped in performances. The song’s soaring high note at “night divine” makes it a showpiece for soloists.

Three great hymns: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Joy to the World, O Come, All Ye Faithful

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (1739)

Charles Wesley, a founder of Methodism with his brother John, published this hymn in 1739 as “Hymn for Christmas-Day.” His first line was actually “Hark how all the welkin rings” (welkin is an old word for the sky); the preacher George Whitefield and others later revised it into the line we know. More than a century later, the English musician William H. Cummings fitted the words to a melody from a cantata by Felix Mendelssohn — the tune nearly everyone uses today.

Many modern hymnals sing the second verse as “Late in time behold Him come, offspring of the Virgin’s womb” in place of the “Desire of Nations” lines shown in this 1920 military hymnal.

Joy to the World (1719)

The English minister Isaac Watts wrote these words as a paraphrase of Psalm 98 in his 1719 book The Psalms of David Imitated. Interestingly, the text was written about Christ’s return rather than the Nativity, but it became a Christmas favorite anyway. The famous tune, called Antioch, was arranged in 1839 by the American church musician Lowell Mason, who said it drew on themes from Handel’s Messiah.

Many hymnals also include a verse beginning “No more let sins and sorrows grow,” which the 1920 hymnal leaves out.

O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)

This hymn began in Latin as “Adeste Fideles.” Its earliest known manuscripts date to the 18th century and are linked to John Francis Wade, an English Catholic who copied music in France, though whether he wrote the words himself is uncertain. The English translation most people sing was made by Frederick Oakeley, an English priest, and was published in Murray’s Hymnal in 1852.

Some churches save the last verse (“Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning”) for Christmas morning itself, since it speaks of the birth as having just happened.

Away in a Manger and God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

Away in a Manger (1880s)

For years “Away in a Manger” was called “Luther’s Cradle Hymn” and credited to the German reformer Martin Luther, but historians have found no evidence he wrote it. The words first appeared in American publications in the 1880s, and the author is unknown. In the United States it is usually sung to the tune “Mueller,” now credited to James Ramsey Murray, who published the carol in 1887. In Britain, a different tune called “Cradle Song” by William J. Kirkpatrick is more common.

Many modern versions add a third verse beginning “Be near me, Lord Jesus.” Because it is short and gentle, this is often the first carol young children learn.

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (traditional English)

This is one of the oldest carols on the list. It was sung in England for generations before anyone wrote it down, and the earliest known printed edition dates to around 1760. Charles Dickens mentions it in A Christmas Carol (1843), when a boy sings it through Scrooge’s keyhole. Note the comma: the title means “God keep you merry, gentlemen,” not “God rest, you merry gentlemen.” The verses below come from William Sandys’s 1833 collection Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern, which uses the older word “you.”

“Jury” is an old spelling of Judea. The full carol in Sandys has seven verses, following the shepherds to the manger. Modern singers usually say “ye” and end the chorus with “O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy.”

We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Jolly Old St. Nicholas and The Twelve Days of Christmas

We Wish You a Merry Christmas is a traditional English folk carol from the West Country. It comes from the old custom of wassailing, when carolers sang for well-off neighbors and expected a treat — here, figgy pudding — in return. It is one of the few traditional carols that also wishes listeners a happy New Year.

Jolly Old St. Nicholas is an American song. Its words come from a poem by Emily Huntington Miller printed in the children’s magazine The Little Corporal in December 1865; it was sometimes wrongly credited to Benjamin Hanby, who wrote the similar “Up on the Housetop.” The usual tune appeared in a school songbook by James R. Murray in 1874. These are the words as commonly sung:

The Twelve Days of Christmas is an English cumulative song — each verse repeats all the gifts that came before — first printed in the children’s book Mirth Without Mischief around 1780. The tune most people use, with its stretched-out “five gold rings,” comes from a 1909 arrangement by the English composer Frederic Austin. The twelve days run from Christmas Day to the eve of Epiphany. Here are the gifts as usually sung, from day 1 to day 12:

• 1–4Birds firstA partridge in a pear tree · two turtle doves · three French hens · four calling birds
• 5–8Rings, birds and milkmaidsFive gold rings · six geese a-laying · seven swans a-swimming · eight maids a-milking
• 9–12The grand finaleNine ladies dancing · ten lords a-leaping · eleven pipers piping · twelve drummers drumming

The 1780 version has “colly birds” (an old dialect word for black, so probably blackbirds) instead of “calling birds.” A popular claim that the song was a secret code for teaching the Catholic catechism appeared only in the late 20th century and has no historical evidence behind it.

Famous 20th-century Christmas songs (no lyrics — still under copyright)

Many of the songs that fill holiday radio playlists are much younger than the carols above. Their lyrics are protected by copyright, so we only share a little of their history:

• “Winter Wonderland” (1934) — music by Felix Bernard, words by Richard B. Smith.
• “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” (1934) — by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie.
• “White Christmas” (1942) — by Irving Berlin, introduced by Bing Crosby in the film Holiday Inn; Crosby’s recording became one of the best-selling singles ever.
• “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (1944) — by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, first sung by Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis.
• “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” (1945) — by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, famously written during a California heat wave.
• “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” — by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells, made famous by Nat King Cole.
• “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1949) — song by Johnny Marks, based on a 1939 story by Robert L. May; Gene Autry’s recording made it a hit.
• “Frosty the Snowman” (1950) — by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins.

To sing these at a public event, use a licensed songbook or sheet music. For movies built around many of these songs, see our Christmas movies guide.

Tips for a caroling night

• 1Pick five or six songsChoose carols everyone half-knows: Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Silent Night and Joy to the World are safe bets.
• 2Print lyric sheetsPut them in plastic sleeves so they survive snow or drizzle. Large print helps in dim light.
• 3Ask firstCarol for friends, neighbors who expect you, or a senior center that has invited you. Keep each stop to two or three songs.
• 4Bring light and warmthFlashlights or battery candles, reflective vests near roads, gloves and a thermos of cocoa.
• 5End with a treatIn the spirit of “figgy pudding,” finish at someone’s home with cookies — try recipes from our cookie guide.