Too early for Christmas?

[Armchairhomesteader]

Does anyone know of a Christmas song or a hymn that says something about light or lights? Part of a story I am writing is about a school Christmas pageant, and I need a song for a character to sing while the lights on a Christmas tree are turned on.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

A seemingly late Armchairhomesteader!

I do not know one right off of the top of my head, I'll let you know if I do remember one. Maybe you could right one (I'm sure that we wouldn't mind helping you)? You never know, it could be the next big Christmas song.

Are you going to let us take a peek when your done righting?

 

[baymule]

http://www.christmas-tree.com/real/christmassongs.html

O Christmas Tree

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!
How are thy leaves so verdant!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How are thy leaves so verdant!

Not only in the summertime,
But even in winter is thy prime.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How are thy leaves so verdant!

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Much pleasure doth thou bring me!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Much pleasure doth thou bring me!

For every year the Christmas tree,
Brings to us all both joy and glee.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Much pleasure doth thou bring me!

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Thy candles shine out brightly!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Thy candles shine out brightly!

Each bough doth hold its tiny light,
That makes each toy to sparkle bright.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Thy candles shine out brightly!

 

[Smart Red]

@baymule beat me to it! O Christmas Tree was my pick as well. That song was used when I was in 5th grade as we stood on risers and turned on flashlights covered in colored plastic. Being the tallest in class, I was the star on top!

We also sang it in German -- O Tannenbaum. I taught the song phonetically to my 3rd grade granddaughter and she sang it to her class when they had a short unit on Germany and German culture.

 

[Carol Dee]

YEAH Baymule I thought of that song right off but could not recall all the verses. Then of course we always had to sing the German version, O Tannenbaum

 

[Carol Dee]

Smart Red, you where faster than I I was busy looking up the spelling for Tannenbaum!

 

[Armchairhomesteader]

A seemingly late Armchairhomesteader!

I do not know one right off of the top of my head, I'll let you know if I do remember one. Maybe you could right one (I'm sure that we wouldn't mind helping you)? You never know, it could be the next big Christmas song.

Are you going to let us take a peek when your done righting?

The Christmas pageant in my story isn’t the main theme of the story. My purpose is to complain about Christmas commercialism. I know it’s been done before, and I freely admit that Miracle on 34th Street (the real version with Maureen O’Hara) is my inspiration. Santa Claus is a pivotal character, but he’s just a catalyst for the rest of the story.
There are 2 main characters. One is a 30-something lawyer who ends up having to put his wife in rehab for alcoholism. The other is a grade-school-aged child who has been sent to an orphanage with his little brother after a lifetime of abuse at the hands of his mother and her boyfriend. So my story isn’t all goodness and light.
The orphanage has a school attached to it and it is the school’s Christmas pageant that I need help with. Act I has a variety show/vaudeville format. Act II has adults in a mock classroom doing show and tell so they can talk about what Christmas was like when they were Children. The woman playing the teacher in the scene used to be a school teacher; she’s the widow of the orphanage’s founder. Her childhood was spent during the Great Depression so her life serves to put everybody else’s in perspective.
Act III has Santa Claus making his rounds. But a present falls out of the sleigh. The present lands next to a single evergreen tree that is left in a forest clearing after the other trees have been harvested for Christmas. An angel lands on the top of the tree, and as she sings the animals of the forest gather around the tree. I need a song for the angel to sing while fireflies land on the tree.
But, the scene starts with the present singing a song about being lonely. I have some lyrics, but I don’t have a poetic bone in my body so the lyrics need work:
I’m the loneliest present at Christmas
Nobody will play with me
I’m all alone
I have no home, not even a Christmas tree
I’m thinking the song (at least with these lyrics) should have a waltz tempo, but I would just as soon have better lyrics.
I will try to find a publisher once I get the story finished (the pageant is the next to last chapter). But I would gladly take whatever help I can get doing a final edit. Aside from taking care of my disabled mother I myself have a bad heart valve along with my family’s debilitating arthritis. And I have to take massive amounts of blood pressure meds that cause fatigue. I can only work on the story a little at a time. I’ve spent more than a year writing the story (final word count will be 125,000 words). So I am going to need help making sure that the details of the plot and characterization are consistent from start to finish.

 

[Armchairhomesteader]

http://www.christmas-tree.com/real/christmassongs.html

O Christmas Tree

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!

I took German classes for grades 8 – 12. I think O Tannenbaum has as many lyrics as there are times that the song has been sung.

 

[Smart Red]

Er, um, @Armchairhomesteader, keep me in mind. I am a retired educator who loves to read and has strong language skills.

 

[digitS']

song One Little Christmas Tree, Stevie Wonder link

One little Christmas tree was standing alone
Waiting for someone to come by
One little Christmas tree that never had grown
Cried as he looked up to the sky

"Oh please Mr. Father Tree, the tallest of all
I'm so afraid and so alone
Could one little Christmas tree
So tiny and small light up someone's home?"

'Cause one little Christmas tree can light up a home
So one little child can find a toy
One little Christmas tree can light up a home
So one little heart can find some joy

One little angel who was riding a star
Cried as she looked down at the tree
"Oh please Mr. Father Tree, wherever you are
May I give him the star you gave to me?"

Then in the heavens came a voice from afar
A voice that was heard throughout the world
"Go down little angel girl and give him your star
Tonight he'll light the world"

'Cause one little Christmas tree can light up the world
So those who are lost may find their way
One little Christmas tree can light up the world
So all men may see on Christmas.

Stevie