It Came Upon a Midnight Clear is a very familiar carol. Most of us can probably sing the first verse from memory, and maybe the second and last. However, the third and fourth often get passed over. 

This arrangement by Robert Rice, as sung by The King's Singers, not only includes the middle stanzas, but even accentuates them. And because Rice has used a tune less familiar to me, I've been hearing it with fresh ears, so to speak. The fourth verse has been especially meaningful to me this year. The last few years have felt like a "weary road."  This carol helps us remember/gives us permission, to rest, listen, and hope!

It came upon the midnight clear,

That glorious song of old,

From angels bending near the earth,

To touch their harps of gold:

"Peace on the earth, goodwill to men,

From heaven's all-gracious King."

The world in solemn stillness lay,

To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,

With peaceful wings unfurled,

And still their heavenly music floats

O'er all the weary world;

Above its sad and lowly plains,

They bend on hovering wing,

And ever o'er its babel sounds

The blessed angels sing.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife

The world has suffered long;

Beneath the angel-strain have rolled

Two thousand years of wrong;

And man, at war with man, hears not

The love-song which they bring;

O hush the noise, ye men of strife,

And hear the angels sing.

And ye, beneath life's crushing load,

Whose forms are bending low,

Who toil along the climbing way

With painful steps and slow,

Look now! for glad and golden hours

come swiftly on the wing.

O rest beside the weary road,

And hear the angels sing!

For lo!, the days are hastening on,

By prophet bards foretold,

When with the ever-circling years

Comes round the age of gold

When peace shall over all the earth

Its ancient splendors fling,

And the whole world give back the song

Which now the angels sing.

To listen click: https://youtu.be/ftiff8AjREQ

I'd like to share with you an old recording of I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.  It's an arrangement by Ovid Young and sung by Dean Wilder.

Now, I know it may not be in a style that many will find to their liking, but this is my favorite arrangement of Longfellow's poem. Let me tell you why. 

I admire the ability to hear how two different tunes can be combined into one song.  And Young did this beautifully. He begins and ends with the tune by John Baptiste Calkin, first used in 1872.  The middle section uses the tune written by Johnny Marks in 1956.

The two familiar tunes transition naturally from one to the other, and in so doing, perfectly capture the emotions of the words.  Words of sadness, discouragement, and yet, hope!

I'm also fascinated by the collaboration of four individuals, over the span of more than 100 years, each one separately contributing to the final work.

As I said, this is old - 1976!  So the quality isn't the best.  But I hope you'll take a quiet minute to listen.

Greetings and Salutations

And thank-yous and thinking-of-yous.

I made cards!

My supplies:
Plain notecards, gel medium, sharpies and gel pen.

My pallet:
Little snippets of paint skins.

My process:

 I started by selecting coordinating pieces in varied sizes and adhered them to the card stock with gel medium.

Next came the doodling:

 sometimes penciling in ideas first, 

sometimes getting a little help from Autodesk Sketchbook.

e-sketch

Finally, it was time to commit and pick up the permanent markers.

Most were flowers.  Some had borders.

And then some mushrooms sprouted!