Ding Dong! Merrily on High is one of the happiest and most spirited Christmas songs, and like many of the traditional carols that are sung today, it was written hundreds of years ago.  The earliest record we have of the song is from 1588, making it at least 428 years old.  However, the piece originally had nothing to do with Christmas -  it was a standard tune used for French dances.  The melody is written (sideways! - see the image below) on page 92 of a book called Orchesographie by Thoinot Arbeau, which was the pen name of Jehan Tabourot (1519-1595).  His choice of pen name was particularly interesting because it is an anagram of his real name (the same letters were placed in a different order).  A facsimile of Orchesographie can be viewed on the Library of Congress website.   Orchesographie is a very important historical document that provides us with many of the popular melodies of the French Renaissance, and it gives i...

It’s only twelve days until Christmas!  I’d like to celebrate the countdown to Christmas by featuring some of my favorite carols.  It seems appropriate to present The Twelve Days of Christmas today.  Although some people think that the celebration of twelve days occurs before Christmas, it actually begins on Christmas day and continues through early January.  The sheet music to The Twelve Days of Christmas is now available on ChristmasMusicSongs.com as a free, printable PDF. The Twelve Days of Christmas carol dates back to the late eighteenth century, and tells the story of how one’s “true love” gave gifts for twelve straight days.  Many gifts!  If you add up the total number of presents given over the course of the twelve days in the song, it adds up to 364!  For over thirty years, PNC Bank has provided a whimsical financial analysis of how much it would cost to purchase each of the gifts.  They call it the Total Christmas Price...

Welcome to Joyful Santa!  My goal is to help people celebrate the Christmas season, and to present information and news about my Christmas websites. It's December 1, and time to start the Christmas countdown.  As of today, there are only 24 days left until Christmas.  For those who can't wait, here is a precise counter that shows how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds until Christmas:   http://www.christmasmusicsongs.com/countdown-to-christmas.html Fluffy and Ivy, the Two Happy Bears, will help Santa calculate exactly how many days until Christmas.  Let the countdown begin! Fluffy, Ivy, and Santa countdown the days till Christmas