Over 100 Traditional and Popular Songs

Foreword by James Adam Richliano

How to Access the Lyrics on the CD

In addition to the 12 guitar instrumentals, the included disc contains printable PDF lyric sheets for all the songs in the book— perfect for merrymaking! To access these sheets, insert the disc into a computer, double-click on My Computer, right-click on the disc drive icon, and select Explore. (Mac users can simply double-click “The Christmas Songbook” disc icon that appears on the desktop.) The lyric sheets are located in the “Lyrics” folder, and can be printed on your computer’s printer directly from the CD.

Produced by Alfred Music P.O. Box 10003 Van Nuys, CA 91410-0003 alfred.com

Printed in USA. No part of this book shall be reproduced, arranged, adapted, recorded, publicly performed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without written permission from the publisher. In order to comply with copyright laws, please apply for such written permission and/or license by contacting the publisher at alfred.com/permissions. ISBN-10: 1-4706-1491-X (Book & CD) ISBN-13: 978-1-4706-1491-1 (Book & CD)

Cover image from the Popular Graphic Arts collection, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, Library of Congress, LC-DIG-pga-01599

Solo Arrangements: “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “Away in a Manger,” “Deck the Halls,” “Joy to the World/It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” and “Silent Night” arranged and performed by Craig Dobbins. “The First Noel,” “O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles),” “O Holy Night,” “We Three Kings of Orient Are/God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” and “What Child Is This?” arranged and performed by Vincent Carrola. “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” and “Ukrainian Carol (Carol of the Bells)” arranged and performed by Aaron Stang. forew0rd

For hundreds of years Christmas music has continuously inspired, healed, and united our hearts and voices in a way that no other musical genre can do, and the songs that have been chosen for this glorious and eclectic holiday songbook are a powerful representation of why the world returns to these cherished evergreens year after year, decade after decade, ad infinitum.

It is absolutely astounding to recognize that “Believe,” popularized by Josh Groban and the film The Polar Express and included near the beginning of this collection, is one of only a handful of holiday hits written after the year 2000. As with many yuletide standards, its enormous popularity is indelibly linked to the timeless voice that sings it, and to the fact that it is well-written and extremely emotional, poetic, and melodic.

While “Believe” is one of the newest Christmas songs contained within these pages, “What

Child Is This?” is almost a thousand years older, and its hauntingly beautiful melody can be traced all the way back to the 16th century. Not only did Shakespeare himself include the song in one of his plays, but Queen Elizabeth is said to have once danced to it when it was known by some as “My Lady Greensleeves.” Like all of the songs here, it asks anyone who plays or sings it to consider the wonders of the season, and the endless possibilities and miracles that lie hidden within the depths of the human heart.

Bridged between the two millenniums represented here by “Believe” and “What Child Is This?” are dozens of other delightful sacred and secular songs that are instantly recognizable.

Yet, if you are searching for a Christmas song you may never have heard about, this is the songbook for you, as it succeeds in including some lovely and delicious surprises along the way. Among the newer surprises that you may actually One would be amiss to not mention the enormous instantly recognize is “Mary, Did You Know?” impact Quebec native Celine Dion has had on written by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene and Christmas music ever since she released 1998’s first recorded by Christian artist Michael English in These Are Special Times, her first seasonal set 1991. The quiet mystery surrounding a poetically sung entirely in English. As you turn the pages profound question contemplated in the song’s here, you will find “Don’t Save It All for Christmas religious lyrics is expertly conveyed by country Day,” a song she co-wrote with pop songwriter superstars Kenny Rogers and Wynonna Judd, Peter Zizzo and Rick Wake. whose dynamic duet of it was included in Rogers’s Some other wonderful secular post-1970 modern 1996 holiday disc The Gift. Since then, it has been choices featured in these pages are Kenny Loggins’s recorded by many other artists, including Reba “Celebrate Me Home,” Joni Mitchell’s “River,” Jackie McEntire, Mary J. Blige, CeeLo Green, and Clay DeShannon’s, “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” Aiken, and it looks like it’s well on its way to (as performed in the final scene of Bill Murray’s becoming a rare post-modern poetic Christmas holiday film Scrooged), and “Christmas Vacation,” standard that dares to address the sacred birth a nugget written by Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann in a way few songs have ever done. for the 1989 eponymous movie soundtrack.

Christian pop music artist Amy Grant, whose While many of us are yearning to encounter career has benefitted enormously from the release newer Christmas songs that we may or may of close to a dozen holiday sets beginning in not have played or sung before, this 1983, has herself co-written a song similar to songbook has thankfully given us many “Mary, Did You Know?” in its stunning and daringly older ones, some comfortably familiar sweeping biblical references. That song, titled and others that are in need of “Breath of Heaven (Mary’s Song),” is also instant discovery. contained here, and makes a gorgeous The Great American Christmas companion piece to Lowry and Greene’s song— Songbook is alive and well within especially for those searching for profound holiday these pages and is represented by themes that have more to do with favorite one of the greatest cherished things other than Santa Claus, snowflakes, and musical evergreens ever written, mail-bound mall-bought brown paper packages “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts tied up with packing tape. Roasting on an Open Fire).” Also, courtesy of Nashville, in the late ’90s Janis Popularized and still very much Ian and Kye Fleming teamed to write the beautiful associated with Nat King Cole, it was “Emmanuel,” recorded by Janis, Kathy Mattea, released in 1946 and written by and Dean Carter. This lesser-known song just Robert Wells along with big-band-era may become one of your favorite things when jazz crooner Mel Tormé, you sing or play it for the first time. in the middle of an contents

Angels from the Realms of Glory...... 9 Feliz Navidad...... 64

Angels We Have Heard on High...... 10 The First Noel...... 61

As Lately We Watched...... 11 The Friendly Beasts...... 66

Auld Lang Syne...... 13 Gesu Bambino (The Infant Jesus)...... 68

Away in a Manger...... 14 The Gift...... 70

The Babe...... 16 Go Tell It on the Mountain...... 74

A Babe Is Born in Bethlehem...... 15 God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen...... 75

Believe (from The Polar Express)...... 17 Good Christian Men, Rejoice...... 76

The Bells of Christmas...... 22 Good King Wenceslas...... 77

Blue Christmas...... 21 A Great and Mighty Wonder...... 78

The Boar’s Head Carol...... 24 Hallelujah Chorus...... 79

Born Is He, This Holy Child...... 25 Happy Xmas (War Is Over)...... 84

Breath of Heaven (Mary’s Song)...... 26 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing...... 88

Bright and Joyful Is the Morn...... 30 Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas...... 90

Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella...... 31 Here Comes Santa Claus...... 89

Buon Natale Here We Come A-Wassailing...... 92 (Means Merry Christmas to You)...... 32 The Holiday Season...... 94 Carol of the Birds...... 34 The Holly and the Ivy...... 93 Celebrate Me Home...... 35 A Holly Jolly Christmas...... 96 A Child This Day Is Born...... 38 Holy Night, Peaceful Night...... 98 Christ Was Born on Christmas Day...... 39 (There’s No Place Like) Home for Christmas Comes Anew...... 40 the Holidays...... 100

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting Hush, My Babe, Lie Still and Slumber...... 99 on an Open Fire)...... 44 I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day...... 102 Christmas Vacation...... 41 I Saw Three Ships...... 103 Christmas Wrapping...... 46 I Wonder as I Wander...... 104 The Coventry Carol...... 52 I’ll Be Home for Christmas...... 105 Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy...... 53 In a Christmas Mood...... 106 December...... 54 It Came Upon the Midnight Clear...... 108 Deck the Halls...... 57 It’s Christmas in New York...... 110 Don’t Save It All for Christmas Day...... 58 It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...... 112 Emmanuel...... 62 Jingle Bells...... 114 Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree...... 150

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas...... 116 Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer...... 152

Joy to the World...... 117 Santa Baby...... 154

Let There Be Peace on Earth Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town...... 156 (Let It Begin with Me)...... 118 Silent Night...... 158 Let’s Have an Old-Fashioned Christmas...... 120 Silver and Gold...... 159 The Little Drummer Boy...... 122 Simple Gifts...... 160 Mary, Did You Know?...... 126 Sleigh Ride...... 162 Mary Had a Baby...... 124 Stand Beneath the Mistletoe...... 166 Mele Kalikimaka...... 128 Star of the East...... 161 Noel! Noel!...... 125 The Twelve Days of Christmas...... 168 O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum)...... 131 Up on the House Top...... 171 O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)...... 132 We Three Kings of Orient Are...... 172 O Come, Little Children...... 133 We Wish You a Merry Christmas...... 173 O Come, O Come Emmanuel...... 134 Welcome Christmas O Holy Night...... 135 (from How the Grinch Stole Christmas!)...... 174

O Little Town of Bethlehem...... 136 What Child Is This?...... 175

On Christmas Night All Christians Sing...... 137 When Christmas Comes to Town (from The Polar Express)...... 179 Once in Royal David’s City...... 138 You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch Patapan...... 139 (from How the Grinch Stole Christmas!)...... 176 Put a Little Love in Your Heart ...... 140 ’Zat You, Santa Claus?...... 182 Ríu, Ríu, Chíu...... 143

River...... 146

Solo Guitar Arrangements

Angels We Have Heard on High...... 187 O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)...... 210

Away in a Manger...... 191 O Holy Night...... 215

Deck the Halls...... 194 Silent Night...... 221

The First Noel...... 197 Ukrainian Carol (Carol of the Bells)...... 223

Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring...... 203 We Three Kings of Orient Are/ God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen...... 225 Joy to the World/It Came Upon the Midnight Clear...... 207 What Child Is This?...... 233 9 ANGELSAngels FROM from THE the Realms REALMS of Glory OF GLORY

Words by Music by JAMES MONTGOMERY HENRY T. SMART

Brightly Verse: C Am7 E7 Am F/C C Am

32 1 21 21 231 34211 32 1 231 4 œ. œ &4. œ œ œ J œ œ œ œ œ œ 1.An - gelsœ from the realms of glo - ry, wing your flight o’er 2.Shep - herds in the fields a - bid - ing, watch - ing o’er your 3.Sag - es, leave your con - tem - pla - tions, bright - er vi - sions

G7/B C Am7 E7 Am E7

4 21 32 1 21 21 231 21 œ. œ & œ œ œ œ œ J œ œ all the earth.˙ Ye whoœ sang cre - a - tion’s sto - ry, flocks by night. God with man is now re - sid - ing, beam a - far. Seek the great de - sire of na - tions,

Chorus: Am E7 Am D7/F# G D7/A G/B G G7

7 231 21 231 2 31 21 3 213 143 21 3 321 œ. œ & œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ J œ œ now pro - claim Mes - si - ah’s birth. yon - der shines the in - fant light. Come and wor- ship, Ye have seen his Na - tal star.}

1.2. 3. C F/C Dm7 C/E F6 D7/F# G7sus G7/B C G7sus G7/B C

10 32 1 34211 211 21 3241 2 31 341 21 32 1 341 21 32 1 œ. œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ ˙ & J œ œ . œ come and wor- ship! Wor - ship Christ, the new- born King! new- born King!

Traditional Carol Brightly C Am7 D7sus G7/D C G/B Am7 G6 G/B C

32 1 21 12 3 1 32 1 1 34 21 2 1 34 32 1 4 œ œ œ œ œ. œ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ. œ &4 J J ˙ An - gels we have heard on high, sweet - ly sing - ing o’er the plains.

Am7 D7sus G7/D C G/B Am7 G6 G/B C

5 21 12 3 1 32 1 1 34 21 2 1 34 32 1 œ œ œ œ œ. œ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ. œ & J J ˙ And the moun - tains in re - ply, ech - o - ing their joy - ous strains.

Am7 Dm7 G7 C F/C G/B G

21 211 32 1 32 1 32411 1 34 21 3 9 ˙ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ . j & œ œ œ œ œ ˙ Glo - ri - a

C G/B C G7 C/G G/B C E7/B Dm7/A G7

32 1 1 34 32 1 32 1 32 1 1 34 32 1 2314 211 32 1 13 œ œ ˙ ˙ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ œ & œ œ ˙ œ in ex - cel - sis De - o. Glo -

C F/C G/B G7 C G/B Am7 Dm7 C/G G7/B C

32 1 32411 1 34 32 1 32 1 1 34 21 211 3 21 21 32 1 17 ˙ œ œ . j œ œ ˙ & œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ ˙ w - ri - a in ex - cel - sis De - o.