to insist that it is 'I love THEE' in Away in a Manger

[Balfe]

I have turned into one of those ancient teachers grouching in a corner but really, they're singing 'I love you Lord Jesus'.... It's got to be proper!

It's "and stay by my bedside 'till morning is nigh"
And "round yon virgin"

And I love "Thus spake the sereph and forthwith.." line too

I'm 28 and learned the 'proper' Lords Prayer by rote at school. My local church has adopted the modern version and it's always me and a couple of old ladies who stumble over '"For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours..." etc.
There's a modern version?!!!! Are people really so stupid these days that they can't manage to recite a simple prayer without dumbing it down?

Cross post, poison.

In primary school we used to sing:

Come and join the celebration
It's a very special day
Come and share our jubilation
There's a new King born today

etc

I used to think it was

Car man, join the celebration

It must be one of my earliest memories because I must have been unable to read it off the OHP.

Balfe - that's the one!

And it's THEE! I've gone straight past 'grouchy' into full-blown rant-mode in 10 seconds flat...

It's either

Stay by my bedside 'til morning is nigh, or

Stay by my side until morning is nigh. - that's how they fit the extra syllable in.

I've also heard cradle in place of [bed]side. I prefer stay by my side, though. I used to find that very comforting, the idea of Jesus being by my bed with me as I went off to sleep.

Come and join the celebration
It's a very special day
Come and share our jubilation
There's a new King born today

HATE THAT ONE! Ugh!

'Come- and---- jointhecelebration
Its-a----verspeciaday

It's and stay by my side

tidy-ings May 😂.

That image will come to me next time I sing it.

With thee all the way. My sister in law sings in a choir that stands in for the nearby cathedral choir during their hols. They sing Love thee in AIAM.

If a choir is doing a carol service, they often hate if random people from the congregation decide to sing a descant.

Because although in the UK at least, there is one very common descant that many people know, it is NOT the only one, and others might know different ones - and the choir itself might be planning a different one. Or planning some different harmony in the last verse. Or planning not to have one - especially if there isn't an organ.

We did an unaccompanied carol service one time, and a few people in the congregation decided to belt out the traditional descant in the last verse, not particularly well, and it didn't fit at all.

I like the old words too, but there are definitely different versions and not one absolutely official one, depending on which hymn book or carol book you use. And different versions of the harmony, too, or different voicings of the same harmony. Lots of people seem to just assume that the one common one they learned at school is THE version, when really it's A version, that just happens to have become popular because of various famous carol services...

FWIW, we used to sing 'bedside, 'til' rather than 'side , until' - both three syllables, and they scan perfectly well as each other.

I also know a variety of tunes to some of the carols, some more popular in different countries.

as 'save me from the foam - a line!'

I love that. It is like something I would get into my head.

I prefer 'thee' in Away in A Manger'.
Also it is 'yon virgin', that was what we learned many years ago.

And 'Round yon virgin' in my experience, too.

That's the boring American tune Sisters, I like the British one better!

A friend and I nearly had a blazing argument about the best words to "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" in the interval at a concert once. We happily made up tutting over the fact they put up the last verse of O Come All Ye Faithful when it wasn't Christmas Day!

"It's "stay by my bedside 'til morning is nigh" isn't it?"

Isn't "stay by my side until morning is nigh"?

I much prefer the old wording in hymns & carols

poisoning I still refuse to accept that! I bet you didn't get that version from AMNS or the Methodist hymnbook!

But glad the "angels" are vindicated!

All kids I've ever known sing "stay by my bed until morning is NIGHT" as well.

Round yon Virgin is definitely right.

Had a terrible time in my GP surgery the other day, a local school was murdering Away in a Manger singing not only the wrong words (see above) but the wrong tune. The last line of each verse was sung to the same tune as the second line. Made me feel very ill (I was accompanying DD).

Dominic the Italian Xmas donkey confused

😂

The "Yea Lord we greet thee verse" must not be sung before Midnight Mass!

I also love the King James Version of the nativity story when the shepherds were " sore afraid".

I am disappointed every year when I hear shepherds being terrified.

(I'm not as old as I sound either!)

Fallen yes it really annoys me when you have to sing that early!

I'm not a Christian, just like things to be authentic, and I despair a bit at the idea that you can't expect a child to get his/her head around 'thee' etc now. I don't see why it would be a massive barrier to understanding, and it just closes off a bit of knowledge and a bit of a sense of shifts and changes in language, and how language works. O Come, for example, is how I learnt that 'very' meant 'true', and hence verify, veritable, veracity....

We shouldn't just make everything all simple and basic and boring, or assume that children can't comprehend it unless we do.

I don't mind people doing descant if they are singing the right words, it's a service not a concert after all. I like the fact that everyone's singing together, whether they can sing or, like me, cannot carry a tune in a bucket.