Via Amy Welborn, Gerald O’Collins on Christmas carols:
OUR MUCH LOVED carols can trigger deep delight and even intense spiritual experience. They tell wonderful stories and introduce powerful symbols: the birth of a poor child who is the saviour of the world; exotic people from the Orient who travel in search of a new-born boy; a gleaming star which directs their journey; an angel who comes at the dead of night to send a family fleeing from mortal peril into exile, and the dreadful deeds of a cunning and murderous tyrant.
The carols also embody a rich treasury of Christian faith. Taken together, they express a full range of beliefs about the Christ child and the divine purposes revealed at his birth. While examining some of the more familiar carols can serve to show the wealth of faith that they embody, commenting might seem to get in the way of these beloved hymns and inhibit our direct experience of them. Yet awareness of their doctrinal worth will enhance their impact rather than restrict their life. …
As someone who spent most of my life “unchurched” as they say, I find that Christmas carols are about the only worship songs I know by heart (I am gradually becoming more familiar with classic Protestant hymnody). For that reason, perhaps, they tend to one of the few ways in which I can easily express spontaneous praise. Maybe that’s part of why I love this time of year so much!
A Thinking Reed 
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