5 December 2025, 09:31
The most sinister lyrics you never noticed in Christmas carols.
Picture:
Alamy
This is the dark side of Christmas carols. You’ll never look a wise man in the eye again…
’Tis the season to sing cheerfully about infant slaughter. Many of our beloved Christmas carols contain lyrics that, when examined closely, reveal surprisingly dark, violent, or just heavy content that we tend to gloss over when we’re belting them out in the village hall.
Read more: 20 famous Christmas carol lyrics
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We Three Kings
“Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.”What do you want for Christmas? Oh I dunno, something shiny, some smellies and… something to embalm a body with.
We Three Kings of Orient Are
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Coventry Carol
Such a peaceful lullaby for the babies at Christmas but this delightful 16th-century ditty refers to the Massacre of the Innocents, when King Herod ordered the killing of all male infants under the age of two. “All young children to slay,” sung on a Picardy third – a jarring major chord resolution at the end of a minor-key piece.
Read more: What are the lyrics to Coventry Carol really about?
Coventry Carol (Lully, lulla) | Carols from King’s 2019
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O Come, All Ye Faithful
The line “Lo, He abhors not the virgin’s womb” from ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’ sounds peculiar (no, totally nuts) to modern ears.
‘O Come, all ye Faithful’ was originally written in Latin and supposedly first appeared in John Francis Wade’s 1751 collection, Cantus Diversi pro Dominicis et Festis per Annum. So Christ becomes man but also lives as a helpless foetus, not abhorring it. Another helping of trifle, anyone?
‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ – VOCES8 Foundation Choir & Orchestra | Classic FM
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Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
This hymn is thought to be one of the oldest in Christian worship dating to at least AD 275. It was paired with Picardy, a French medieval folk tune by Vaughan Williams. Originally sung before communion, the hymn encourages worshippers to approach with genuine dread: “Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand”.
The words also describe heavenly hosts with “sleepless eye” who “veil their faces” before Christ’s presence, while “the powers of hell may vanish as the darkness clears away”. We’ll have a Quality Street and watch Mary Poppins if that’s ok?
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence – Catholic Music Initiative – Dave Moore, Lauren Moore
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Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Wesley’s 1739 hymn contains some choice lyrics, including “Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed, Bruise in us the serpent’s head”. This cheerful line refers to God telling the serpent that the woman’s seed will crush its head.
Read more: The surprising origins of Christmas carols: explained
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing – The Winchester Quiristers
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Remember O Thou Man
This carol from Thomas Ravenscroft’s Melismata (1611) cuts straight to the chase with “Remember, O thou man, Thy time is spent, How thou art dead and gone, And I did what I can, Therefore repent!” then, “Remember Adam’s fall, How we were condemned all, To hell perpetual.” It’s a reminder that without Christ’s intervention, damnation awaits. And it’s a reminder to eat all our sprouts.
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The Cherry Tree Carol
This ballad is both a Christmas carol and a Child Ballad, reportedly sung at the Feast of Corpus Christi in the early 15th century. “When Joseph was an old man, An old man was he, When he courted Virgin Mary, The Queen of Galilee.” Oh Joseph, Joseph. #metoo.
The Cherry Tree Carol (Sarah MacDonald) Ely Cathedral
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The Mistletoe Bough
Not really a carol, this Victorian parlour song from the mid-1800s, tells of a bride who, during a hide-and-seek game at her Christmas wedding, climbs into an oak chest with a spring lock. She is never found. Years later – in some versions as long as 50 years – the chest is opened to reveal a skeleton in a wedding dress. Merry Christmas!
The Mistletoe Bough (1904) – short version | BFI National Archive
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This Little Babe
“This little babe so few days old, Is come to rifle Satan’s fold, All hell doth at his presence quake, Though he himself for cold do shake”. Well it’s no ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’.
Benjamin Britten set Robert Southwell’s poem New Heaven, New War (1595) as part of his Ceremony of Carols, reportedly on a transatlantic voyage. Southwell was a Jesuit priest who was arrested, tortured and executed for treason during Elizabeth I’s reign and his imagery is replete with military metaphors. The baby’s tears are weapons. His naked breast is a shield. His crib is a trench. His advent calendar is empty.
BRITTEN: This little Babe (Choir of Clare College, Cambridge / Graham Ross)
