Here's a contemporary Christmas song, The Meadowhall Carol written by Jim Boyes. You can find it on the CD Christmas Truce - Kerstbestand recorded by Coope Boyes and Simpson and their friends. It's a very moving rendition.

And it was on a cold and angry winter's night
A bitter hail did fall
When all should be encased in homely candlelight
Not in an ox's stall
Nor crouching round a dying fire
Deprived of hearth and home
Nor trapped by circumstance or wire
In a godforsaken zone

There was no one but the ox and ass to hear the cry
Or so the story goes
'Til angels brought the news to wandering shepherd folk
Of a babe in swadding clothes
No glad tidings or blessings rare
For numbers yet unknown
In shelter squat or tent they stare
In a godforsaken zone

And Wise Men came from far and distant foreign lands
Brought gifts of joy and woe
Bowed down their faces only for a little while
Their homage for to show
A gift, some joy but woe enough
For those we then disown
For one a loaf, for one a gun
In a godforsaken zone

Believers say it's faith and hope and charity
That light the guiding star
And gifts of gold bestowed upon the military
That fan the flames of war
Let swords be drawn, ploughshares forsworn
And crops remain ungrown
Let children starve and life be scorned
In a godforsaken zone

And so it's once again, my love, to tinsel town
The mystic glitter calls
The hoardings say that Jesus Christ is born today
Is born in Meadowhall
And far away where Santa's sleigh
Can never never roam
They die to fight another day
In a godforsaken zone.