Joe (and Greta),
Re your discussion of "Bring A Torch, Jeanette Isabella," here is my 2-sous worth.
 

 The carol is not about the actual nativity, as I understand it, but about  a father asking his daughters (Jeannette and Isabelle) to come to the town square to see the real-life creche scene (pageant-like) which the villagers have staged.   I believe it was the custom to have real people rather than wooden cutouts or statues in the manger scenes when the song was written.
If this is the scenario, then a white baby with rosy cheeks is not a concept hard to swallow, for he (or she) was the baby of a European villager -- not the historical Jesus.

BTW, at the risk of spelling mistakes from writing French from memory, here are the other two verses en Francais:
 

C'est un tort quand l'enfant sommeil,
C'est un tort de crier si fort.
Tessez-vous, l'un et l'autre d'abord!
Au moindre bruît, Jesus s'eveille!
Chut!  Chut!  Chut il dort en merveille!
Chut!  Chut!   Chut, voyez comme il dort!

Doucement dans l'etable close,
Doucement,  venez un moment.
Approchez, que Jesus est charmant,
Comme il est blanc, comme il est rose!
Do!  Do!  Do, que l'enfant  repose!
Do!  Do!  Do!   Il rit en dormant!
 

Genie

BTW, Jaze, Joan Baez's version of The Cherry Tree Carol is much shorter than Judy Collins's (and I prefer the shorter version, which ends when the cherry trees bow down to Jesus in Mary's womb and she has "cherries by command.")