Christmas carols for secular humanists

When it comes to enjoying Christmas music, I’m lucky I was raised as a Unitarian Universalist.

Most UUs of my parents’ generation and earlier came to the UU fellowship as refugees from some Christian denomination or other. They were wise enough to bring their favorite hymns and carols with them.

Since we sang plenty of carols about Jesus our Savior and the Lord and all, but weren’t required to believe anything, I develeoped an agnostic distance from the lyrics. Not to offend any true believers, but I enjoyed them in the same way I enjoyed fairytales—as marvelous stories.

The story of Christmas is one of the most appealing in the Bible, after all. Good guys, bad guys, kings, lowly folks, a baby, animals, a happy ending if you don’t think ahead to Easter…

I’m fond of carols that focus on the human side of the story. Here’s an Appalachian carol with a dig at rich folk:

Jesus, Jesus, rest your head
You have got a manger bed
All the evil folk on earth
Sleep in feathers at their birth
Jesus, Jesus, rest your head
You have got a manger bed

Have you heard about our Jesus?
Have you heard about his fate?
How his mother came to the stable
On that Christmas Eve so late?
Winds were blowing, cows were lowing,
Stars were glowing, glowing, glowing

Jesus, Jesus, rest your head
You have got a manger bed