Mary in Kentucky: Thanks for the link (and thanks to Jean for bringing the song up) to the Pretty Saro thread (I know it best in its Wagoner's Lad version as Joan Baez did it; I did an Esperanto version but haven't posted it yet (basically because I've misplaced it), titled "La Juna Charist'".

Those who've mentioned "I heard the bells on Christmas Day", do all of you sing it to "Waltham", and if not, to what? And did you know Longfellow wrote the lyrics during the (US) Civil War, and there are two stanzas (originally 4 & 5) that are rarely if ever sung, that were direct references to the War (the whole song, of course, is an antiwar carol in a general way):

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound the carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn, the households born
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

The whole text (though not in order) and the tunes are in The Cyber Hymnal (which just moved for the second time this month, hopefully the last time!

Liland