Six years ago, I was about to begin my first journey through the church year. It was a bit intimidating, because while I was an Anglican newbie, I was also also the parish music director and administrator (our background made this slightly less crazy — slightly). So, I was busy planning Advent hymnsings for our congregation — mostly because I needed to learn the hymns myself.
But, despite being in over my head, it was such a joy to get to immerse myself in the great tradition of Advent hymnody. I think one of the most simple, yet powerful ways to keep Advent is to save up the traditional Christmas music for the twelve days. But, to do that, you really need Advent music to fill the gap– music that immerses you in the waiting, longing, and mystery of the season. These hymns have become some of my favorites of all the year.
Most (but not all) of these hymns can be found in the standard hymnals (1940 or 1982). Because I’m not a complete stickler, I also decided to include some carols that straddle the line between Advent and Christmas. If you’re wondering what makes a carol different than a hymn, a carol is a seasonal folk song (and like your typical folk song, may have some strange rootsy elements). I’m including a few because, well, I love them. I love learning new-to-me folk songs; their homeliness makes me happy. Some of these, like Let All Who Are to Mirth Inclined, may indeed count as a Christmas carol. But, I will defend my inclusion of it and the few other little-known carols in this list with the following very technical assessment: they just feel Advent-y to me.
Please let me know what hymns or carols you think I should have included! I’m considering this post the first draft of a work in progress, to be refined each year (and I’ve been resisting letting perfection be the enemy of the good — I’m sure there are typos and wrong lyrics about. Please let me know when you see them. And I did struggle to find good Youtube representations of some of these hymns). This site, Hymns and Carols of Christmas, has been an amazing resource in these past years.
I’ve tried to arrange the hymns according to the general vicinity of when we sing them in our church (i.e. Lo, How a Rose on Rose Sunday, O Come, O Come Emmanuel beginning around the O Antiphons, etc.) Around Christmas Eve, I’ll publish another post with hymns and carols through Christmas and Epiphany.
December 2: Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
December 3: Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates
December 4: Creator of the Stars of Night
December 5: Wake, Awake For Night is Flying
December 6: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
December 7: Savior of the Nations, Come
December 8: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree: Adam Lay Ybounden
December 9: People, Look East
December 10: Prepare the Way, O Zion
December 11: Down in Yon Forest
December 12: O Savior Rend the Heavens Wide: Hark, The Voice Eternal
December 13: Comfort, Comfort Ye My People
December 14: Hark, A Thrilling Voice is Sounding
December 15: On Jordan’s Bank
December 16: Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
December 17: O Come, O Come Emmanuel
December 18: The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns
December 19: I Sing of a Maiden: The Seven Joys of Mary
December 20: Hills of the North, Rejoice
December 21: O Come, Divine Messiah
December 22: The Truth Sent From Above : Let All Who Are to Mirth Inclined
December 23: Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending
December 24: The Darkest Midnight in December
For those of you who have been listening daily, if you’d like to continue, here is my list of Christmas Hymns and Carols.
Finally, here is a link to the Youtube Playlist: Advent Hymns and Carols
The Homely Hours 
This is a good list, I see a couple on here that I’m not familiar with. I look forward to checking them out.
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Thank you! I’m glad you like it.
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I love the idea of honoring Advent’s space and look forward to enjoying your favorites. Thank you for sharing!
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You’re welcome! 🙂
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What an incredible listing. Thank you sweet Amanda!!!!
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You’re welcome! 🙂
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Wonderful list! Thanks for organizing them so nicely within the season like this. I will reference this list and listen to one a day with my girls over breakfast! Daddy is a church music director in our family so we have no shortage of excellent Advent music in our library to draw from, but this organized list is just fabulous. Thank you for sharing!
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So glad you like it! Please let me know if you think of any I should add!
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Having grown up Lutheran, most of my favorite hymns are Advent Hymns!
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So many wonderful Lutheran Advent hymns!
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Thank you so much for this! What a rich treasure. I was wondering, though, if you’re aware that the recording for Dec. 3 does not match the printed verses. I’m planning to print out the verses and music and make an advent hymn book we can use from year to year. My young pianists can sight read a bit, so this will be yet another invitation for them to pray twice!
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Thank you for finding that! I’m sure there are numerous errors like that around this post, so if you find anymore, please let me know. Also, what a lovely idea!
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This is a great list Amanda!! I totally agree….Advent is such a wonderful season with a unique spirit all its own, it’s such a shame how it is neglected in the culture. FYI, Holy Nativity Radio will be featuring a number of the hymns you mentioned as well as Psalms and chants throughout Advent: https://holynativityradio.blogspot.com/
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Thank you, Claudio! And thanks for sharing Holy Nativity Radio. I am currently listening! 🙂
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I’m going to use this as my advent calendar – thank you.
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I hope you enjoy it!
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If anyone has Spotify, there is a nice playlist called “Advent with Sacred Ordinary Days” that is beautiful. I am a fellow Anglican, and just discovered you from LMLD- excited to check out the rest of your musings!
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Hi Margaret! Thanks for the playlist recommendation. I love LMLD — it’s pretty much my favorite blog on the internet. Hope you enjoy our site!
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Amazing. Thank you once again, Amanda:)
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You’re welcome, Karena! 🙂
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I want to tell you how much we are enjoying this list. My 16 yo daughter and I are doing Rooted in Hope by Elizabeth Foss together and we light our candle and listen to the hymn of the day. It brings such calm to my soul. Thank you!
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I’m so glad, Joy! That sounds very lovely.
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May I suggest for a future list “Watchman, Tell Us of the Night?” Lyrics by John Bowring, sung to either St. George’s Windsor or Aberystwyth.
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I also love this hymn; we sing it with Aberystwyth. Until this year, we’ve also sang it as an Advent hymn. But, in our new hymnal (the REC’s Book of Common Praise), it’s included under Epiphany. And my priest and I decided that made sense to us, so I was going to include that in my next post for Christmas and Epiphany. Thank you for the suggestion!
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I can see that. I guess at my age it will remain Advent to me…. ;-D
I also want to thank you for including O Savior Rend the Heavens Wide. It sent me down an amazing rabbit hole of memory, to when my high school choir sang the original Brahms setting, translated as O Savior Throw the Heavens Wide. (YouTube versions available.) After 50 years, all the words came back! And I can pick out the altos in the videos, because of when their mouths move. It has been a blessing to me!!
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I’m so glad! This one is new to me this year. We introduced it because it’s in our new hymnal.
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Both of these are me: Salome Ellen Minnick Thomas. For some reason it wouldn’t let me post from WordPress.
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If I may be so bold, perhaps you would enjoy this performance of an old favorite on your Christmas list: https://youtu.be/1RC34N1TfCQ
I feel that this boy’s performance is exceptional. I hope you enjoy it as well.
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Beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
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