The words of this much loved Christmas carol were written in 1868 when Brooks was rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, inspired by having visited Bethlehem at Christmas in 1865 where he heard Christmas carols sung at the site where Jesus was said to have been born. He wrote this carol for his Sunday school children.

The traditional tune is actually adapted from a folksong called ‘the Ploughboy’s Dream’ which Vaughan Williams took down when he heard it in 1903. As a hymn tune it then became known as ‘Forest Green’.

For me, this also evokes the Christmases of my own childhood, most notably when I went to Mary Datchelor Girls’ School where the whole school sang carols on an afternoon at the end of the autumn term. I worked my way up through the various school choirs to the coveted Senior Choir and one of the joys was singing the Vaughan Williams descant to this carol (whether alto or soprano we gave it our enthusiastic and best effort). A couple of days ago, I checked my bookshelves and there was still the  manuscript book in which I took down sung amens and descants in neat pencil – and yes – the RVW descant was still there just as I had sung from it so many years ago. It brings back to me so many friends and teachers in those shared experiences, crammed into tight rows of wooden chairs in the school hall so that parents could join us.