King's College Lessons and Carols

King's College (Cantab.) Chapel's annual service of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve, begun in 1918 or 1919 (depending on how you choose to interpret the history) and broadcast by the BBC since 1928 is one of the most famous Christmas Eve services in the world. The orders of worship from 1997 forward may be found via this webpage.

သီခ်င္းမ်ား - Burmese Christmas Carols

Here's a link to some Burmese Christmas songs (PDF). And here is a blog (from a Burmese Baptist church in San Francisco) with nice sound files playing Burmese singing, including a Kachin Christmas Song.

The Dozen unavoidable Christmas carols

In a response under a thread at Conjubilant With Song dealing with "Lo! Christ comes, with clouds descending", C.W.S. made reference to the fact that at Christmas Day worship "it's hard to supplant the dozen or so Christnmas carols that have to be sung". I wrote back,

Among the 24 hymnals I have catalogued so far, these are the 12 most frequent Christmas/Advent/Epiphany carols/hymns (ranging from 19 to 23 occurrences):

Angels from the realms of glory
Angels we have heard on high
Away in a manger
Hark the herald angels sing
It came upon the midnight clear
Joy to the world
O come, all ye faithful
O come, O come, Emmanuel
O little town of Bethlehem
Silent night, holy night
The first Noel
What child is this

The next four (15 or 16 hits) are:

While shepherds watched
Go tell it on the mountain
Come thou long-expected Jesus
We three kings of orient are

I'd be very curious to know what ones that are not among these 16 you (or others) think are "must haves". I know people who would argue for:

O hearken ye
Some children see him
There's a song in the air
I heard the bells
God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Good Christian men, rejoice

and perhaps one or two others.

and invited (and invite) replies here. The 24 hymnals I have catalogued are heavily weighted towards the baptistic, or at least the evangelical, end of things. Although I think most of the 16 most frequent items in my list above are undoubtedly part of the common Christmas baggage of most if not all American Christians, it may be that there are items that Catholics or Lutherans, say, would consider of equal unavoidability with these. I'm interested in finding out. Let me know.

I should also note that the frequency lists are for text-tune pairings, not just texts, and in three cases that may be a factor in interpreting my list. The three cases in question are 1) Away in a manger: the list refers to the tune Mueller, but Cradle Song is a common alternative; 2) While shepherds watched: the list refers to the tune Christmas, but Winchester Old is a common alternative; and 3) Come, thou long-expected Jesus: the list refers to the tune Hyfrydol, but Stuttgart is a common alternative.