O Little Town of Bethlehem

by

Happy National Go Caroling Day!

I adore Christmas music. All kinds. From fun kids’ songs like I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas to nostalgic tunes like I’ll Be Home for Christmas to haunting melodies like I Wonder as I Wander.

My favorites, however, are the carols that bring the nativity to life and celebrate the birth of our Savior.

O Little Town of Bethlehem is a traditional carol with a fascinating history. The lyrics were penned by an Episcopal priest named Phillips Brooks in 1868, but the story that inspired it began three years earlier.

Brooks, a young minister and staunch abolitionist, was asked to give a eulogy address at President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral. Yet following that service, the weariness of war caught up to Brooks. Craving rest and renewal, he took a sabbatical from preaching and visited the Holy Lands, seeking a measure of peace. Gazing out over the unassuming Bethlehem, the first lines of a poem sprouted in his mind. O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie. Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, a silent star goes by.

A couple years later he came back to that poem and completed it, intending to use it as part of the Christmas service at his church in 1868. He gave the poem to his organist Lewis Redner and asked him to set it to music. Render recalled the rush to find a melody this way:

“As Christmas of 1868 approached, Mr. Brooks told me that he had written a simple little carol for the Christmas Sunday-school service, and he asked me to write the tune to it. The simple music was written in great haste and under great pressure. We were to practice it on the following Sunday. Mr. Brooks came to me on Friday, and said, “Redner, have you ground out that music yet to ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’?” I replied, “No”, but that he should have it by Sunday. On the Saturday night previous my brain was all confused about the tune. I thought more about my Sunday-school lesson than I did about the music. But I was roused from sleep late in the night hearing an angel-strain whispering in my ear, and seizing a piece of music paper I jotted down the treble of the tune as we now have it, and on Sunday morning before going to church I filled in the harmony. Neither Mr. Brooks nor I ever thought the carol or the music to it would live beyond that Christmas of 1868.”

But it lived well beyond that single Christmas service. In fact, one of the verses seemed strangely prophetic. Take note of verse three.

Late in life, Phillips Brooks met a young girl named Helen Keller. He was the first person to help her understand the existence and love of God. Brooks did not have any offspring of his own, but he loved children and when he met Helen during a visit she made to Boston at age 11, the two bonded. He longed to help her understand God, but how does one explain a spiritual concept to a child who needs to touch in order to understand? His persistence paid off, and the deaf and blind girl came to comprehend that the presence she’d always sensed but never understood had a name – God. How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is giv’n! So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heav’n. The two exchanged letters and became so close that when Helen’s younger brother was born, she encouraged her parents to name him Phillips in honor of her dear friend, Mr. Brooks.

I hoped you enjoyed learning a bit of the history behind this classic song. I’ll leave you with a recording by the talented Sarah McLachlan. Merry Christmas!

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For those who love to smile as they read, bestselling author Karen Witemeyer offers warmhearted historical romance with a flair for humor, feisty heroines, and swoon-worthy Texas heroes. Karen is a firm believer in the power of happy endings. . . and ice cream. She is an avid cross-stitcher, and makes her home in Abilene, TX with her husband and three children. Learn more about Karen and her books at: www.karenwitemeyer.com.

25 thoughts on “O Little Town of Bethlehem”

  3. So beautiful! Thank you for sharing the wonderful history of the song & it’s author. May you and your family have a wonderful and very blessed Chtistmas!

  4. Thanks for sharing… that was a very interesting story! I love a wide variety of Christmas music. A few favorites are – (fun) Winter Wonderland; (traditional) Silver Bells; (carol) O Holy Night; (country) Christmas Country Style; (hymn) Beautiful Star of Bethlehem. 🙂

  10. I love this so much! I had no idea about this carol’s origination and I certainly didn’t know of Rev. Brooks’s connection with Helen Keller. Thanks for sharing!

  11. I’m delighted so many of your found the backstory to this carol as fascinating as I did. I find it so encouraging that God can take negative situations like war, death, and spiritual burnout and bring from them a poem that blesses millions of people. But then, this is the same God who brought salvation into the world through an unwed mother in a stable with a homicidal king seeking the babe’s destruction. I shouldn’t be surprised.

  12. Good morning, Thank you so much for sharing this beautiful information about this Beautiful Christmas song, I love it!! May you and your Family have a Very Happy and Blessed Christmas.

  14. I didn’t know the backstory for this one. It was great. Thank you for sharing. It amazes me how many of our carols were created for Sunday school children, like Silent Night.

  20. This was my mother’s favorite Carol. She has been gone for many years, but I still think of her whenever I hear it.

  22. Thank you for sharing the story and the video. I had no idea of the origins of this carol. Interesting that something that started as part of a eulogy address at President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral. The words, both original and expanded are perfect and definitely more suited to Christmas than a funeral. The words and thought behind them are both soothing and thought provoking. Unfortunately, most of us know the first and sometimes the second verse of carols. We sing them but don’t really listen to them, getting the deeper meaning of the words. It was nice being able to read the words and think about them.

    Have a joyous Christmas and a wonderful 2023.

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