Favorite Lullabies

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Hello everyone, Winnie Griggs here.  Around our house we’re currently on baby watch. My oldest daughter is pregnant with her first child and it’s due in a matter of days. Her pregnancy has put me in a mood to reminisce, to remember when she was just a little one herself. And one of my very favorite memories is of tucking her (and later her siblings) into bed with lullabies.

 

Singing lullabies to young children seems to be something ingrained in all of us – it crosses classes, cultures, and generations. I sang them from an early age myself. I have a sister who’s ten years younger than me. When she outgrew her crib and moved into the king-sized bed with me and my middle sister I began singing her to sleep.  It was a ritual we both enjoyed and I continued singing to her at bedtime until I headed off to college eight years later.  I also did quite a bit of babysitting during my high school years, and I reached into my stock of lullabies when I had a fussy child that needed soothing. 

 

So when I had kids of my own, it became a much-looked-forward-to  part of the good night ritual. I allowed each of my four children to pick their choice of songs when I tucked them into bed.

 

But I rarely used conventional lullabies.  Our repertoire included silly children’s songs, show tunes, vacation bible school songs, hymns and even Christmas carols.  I thought I’d share links to some of this eclectic collection (I’ve starred their favorites)

Little Bunny Foo Foo   

       * The Ants Go Marching  

Flowers Are Red   

        * In My Own Little Corner   

Ten Minutes Ago 

Impossible  

White Coral Bells 

       * There Once Was An Ugly Duckling  

Oh Be Careful Little Eyes 

Zacchaeus Was A Wee Little Man   

Rise and Shine (Arky, Arky)  

       * The First Noel

Gloria In Excelsis Deo

 

What do you think – Are any of these songs unfamiliar to you?  Do you have a favorite lullaby of your own?  Or perhaps special memories associated with lullabies? >
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Winnie Griggs is the author of Historical (and occasionally Contemporary) romances that focus on Small Towns, Big Hearts, Amazing Grace. She is also a list maker, a lover of dragonflies and holds an advanced degree in the art of procrastination.
Three of Winnie’s books have been nominated for the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, and one of those nominations resulted in a win.
Winnie loves to hear from readers. You can connect with her on facebook at www.facebook.com/WinnieGriggs.Author or email her at winnie@winniegriggs.com.

51 thoughts on “Favorite Lullabies”

  2. Good morning Winnie, how exciting for a new grand baby !!! I have to say except for the Christmas song First Noel I’ve never heard of the other songs. I’m curious now what they sound like as I might know them but just not the title. My favorite lullaby was A Mockingbird, my daughter loved even singing it as she would rock her babydoll. Christmas time my favorite song was Away in the Manger, we would sing that one also .

  5. Some of these songs sound familiar but a lot of them not. I remember singing Itsy Bitsy spider. Mostly I remember reading to my son at bed time.

  6. Congratulations on your upcoming grandbaby! I don’t really know any lullabies. I don’t remember my mother singing them to me and I don’t have children to have sung them to. But from your list, I do know two of the song, The First Noel and The Ants Go Marching (which is now stuck in my head, LOL!).

  7. Never had a lullaby sang to me, nor did I sing to my children. I read to my kids.
    Congratulations to you and your daughter.

  11. Congratulations to you and your daughter. Some of the songs are familiar to me. I was a singer to my kids and grands. Go to sleepy, Little Baby was a favorite.

  14. When my oldest son was a toddler, his daycare taught the children sign language. One day, I asked the teacher what he was trying to tell me. My son kept making the motion of one hand over the other. The teacher laughed and told me he was singing “The Wheels on the Bus” and doing the motion of the wheels. We still smile about that one.

  15. My dad used to sing these words to us and I could never find it in written form:

    “How far is Heaven, I want to go,
    To see my daddy, who loves me so.”

    I wish I knew if he made it up or not.

    How wonderful to look forward to a grandchild. Such joy. Hope all goes well.

    Loved ready your blog today.

  16. Thanks for sharing this post. Congrats on your daughters soon to be bundle of joy.
    I loved singing lullabys to our children. Heck, LOL, I loved singing lullabys to my siblings. I am the oldest. I sorta dubbed myself as second mom. LOL When our children were young, they would sing with me and it was such a bonding time that will forever live in our minds.

  18. I used to sing “Turra-lorra-Lorra” (sp?) to my nieces and nephews, or sometimes make up a song with their name in it when they were babies.
    I always associated my Great-Aunt Dolly with the song “Rock of Ages”. I told my mom that after singing it in church, that it made me think of her. She laughed and said Aunt Dolly had sung that to me when we were visiting her once when I was little (she lived in another state). She said my grandmother, her sister, growled that it wasn’t much of a lullaby! ? They had a good laugh at that.

  19. I’m not familiar with your list of nursery rhymes, a favorite of mine is Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars

  20. Hi, I love lullaby’s and just about most of them look familiar and I have sung them to either my 3 grandchildren and my 2 now grownup children. I also used to sing a couple of them in spanish to my grandchildren and I changed some of the worlds in them and I added their names to them, they loved them. Thank you for sharing the titles and bringing back Awesome beautiful memories. Have a Great week and stay safe.

    • Hello Alicia. I used to make up words for some of the lullabies as well, sometimes just for variety, sometimes because I couldn’t remember the actual lyrics 🙂

  21. I notice you put down the song “In my own little corner.” Is that from the stage play of Cinderella? If so, I really love that song.

  22. I hope you will be holding your grandbaby in your arms soon. I really miss that stage. Our grandchildren and 22 and 8, so no more lullabies. Not sure if or when our son and his wife will be starting a family.
    About half your songs are familiar to me. I really only sang one to our children and grandchildren when they were babies. It isn’t a lullaby, it is actually a lament for a soldier gone off to war and later being killed. But it is a lovely melody and always soothed them and helped them sleep. It is Shoo La Roo, a 200+ year old Irish song. I used it many times babysitting.

    • Hi Patricia, thanks for those well wishes. Shoo La Roo is a new song for me, but I just listened to it and I can see where it would make a wonderful lullaby

  23. Congratulations on your new grandbaby! I’m super excited for all of you! I always sang “You Are My Sunshine” to put my oldest grandson to sleep. I would sing “Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog” to my nephew (I was 11 when he was born).

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