Recently I felt that Christmas Eve needs to pay more attention to the angels and the shepherds, so I wrote new lyrics for "O Holy Night." I sang them at Monday's singaround, and a guest asked for them. Here they are.

The order in which the melodies occur is not the same as in O Holy Night, so I've labelled them. Here are the words of O Holy Night that the three melodies start with

melody 1 Oh, holy night, the stars are brightly shining...
melody 2 a thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
melody 3 fall on your knees!

The Creative Commons license means you can do anything (copy, perform, record) except one thing. You can't change it a little bit and claim a copyright on it.


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melody 1
Clear was the night, the stars were brightly shining,
the air was warm, and the flocks were calm.
We chased a wolf; it fled into the pine trees.
The only sound was the wind in the palms.

melody 2
Then in great awe, we saw a star in heaven,
low in the sky, a star completely new.
It seemed to send its rays into the village,
its rays came down pearls and like dew.

melody 1
Then suddenly an angel stood before us,
its wings were bright, its robes like the dawn.
It came to us, unclean and misbegotten,
it stood before, and the stars all were gone.

melody 3
We were afraid! Why came this creature to us?
We'd done no wrong! Oh, Abraham, protect us!
So great our fear! Oh God, come to our aid!

melody 2
The angel paused and gazed upon the village,
regarded us and spoke amazing words.
"Be not afraid! I bring the world glad tidings,
tonight is born the Savior, Christ the Lord."

melody 3
We crouched in awe; the heavens tore asunder.
A host sang praise, a thousand in the air.
"All praise to God, and peace, peace to all." 2x

Creative Commons License: Clear was the Night lyrics by leeneia, contributor to the Mudcat Cafe, 2018 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.