Winter Holiday songs

Rise Up Singing has a bunch of old carols in the Ballads & Old Songs chapter. You can find wassails in the Good Times chapter. There are several Chanukah songs in the Faith chapter. There are some African American songs with Christmas themes in the Spirituals chapter. 

There are only a scattering of Christmas songs in Rise Again because it was our plan at the time we made that songbook to create a collection of many Christmas songs for group singing. It may still happen! But not yet...  You can find some Christmas songs under "Holidays" in the Cultures Index. 

Winter Solstice:

• Light Is Returning - Charlie Murphy
• Solstice Carol - Kim Baryluk (of Wyrd Sisters)
• Lengthening Light - Emma's Revolution
• Darkest Day of the Year - The Nields

Hanukah:

• Light One Candle - Peter, Paul & Mary
• Mi Y'Malel - trad.
• Ma'oz Tzur - trad. Hebrew
• I Have a Little Dreydl (My Dreydl)
• Oh Chanukah (O Hanukah)
• Hanuka Dance - Woody Guthrie
• The Many & the Few - Woody Guthrie

Kwanzaa: 

• Aché Oh Kwa - Melanie DeMore

New Years:

• Auld Lang Syne - Robert Burns
• Ring in the New Year (round) - Alix & Anne Hermann

Pete Seeger has a wonderful album of Traditional Christmas Carols that we sell in our online store.

Older traditional carols:

• Boar's Head Carol - trad. English
• Brightest & Best - trad. Appalachian
• Bring a Torch (Un Flambeau, Jeannete Isabelle) - trad. French
• Cherry Tree Carol - trad. Appalachian & English
• A Child This Day - trad. English
• Coventry Carol - trad. English
• Deck the Halls - trad. English
• Friendly Beasts - trad. German
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (17th c. trad. English)
• Green Grow the Rushes - trad. English
• The Holly Bears a Berry - trad. English
• The Holly & the Ivy - trad. English
• I Wonder as I Wander - John Jacob Niles
• Jesus, Jesus, Rest Your Head - trad. Appalachian
• Joseph Dearest - trad. German
• Lo How a Rose - trad. English
• Masters in the Hall - trad. English
• O Come All Ye Faithful / Adeste Fideles - disputed authorship 17th or 18th c. 
• O Come Emmanuel - medieval Latin carol
• Seven Joys of Mary - trad. English
• There Was a Pig Went Out to Dig - trad. English
• Twelve Days of Christmas - trad. English
• Watts Cradle Song

Wassails & Mummers carols:

• Gloucestershire Wassail
• Somerset Wassail
• Sussex Mummers Carol
• The Wassail Song (Here We Go a Wassailing)

Composed carols (mainly 19th century)

• Hark the Herald Angels Sing
• In the Bleak Midwinter
• O Holy Night / Cantique de Noël
• Silent Night / Stille Nacht

Traditional African American carols: 

• Children Go Where I Send Thee - trad. African American
• Go Tell It on the Mountain - trad. African American
• Mary Had a Baby - trad. African American
• Pretty Little Baby - trad. African American
• Rise Up Shepherd - trad. African American

Popular composed Christmas songs:

• Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) 
• Do You Hear What I Hear?
• Feliz Navidad - Jose Feliciano
• Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
• I'll Be Home for Christmas
• It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas
• Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
• Little Drummer Boy
• Must Be Santa
• Sleigh Ride
• White Christmas
• Winter Wonderland

​Composed folk Christmas songs 

• Chariots - John Kirkpatrick
• Christmas Morning - Ross Flanagan
• Elves (round) - Pati Nagle & Martha Davey
• Mrs. Claus - Nancy Schimmel

Folk songs set in Christmas time:

• Arthur McBride - trad. Irish
• Christians & Pagans - Dar Williams
• Christmas in the Trenches - John McCutcheon
• River - Joni Mitchell