Singing is a major part of Danish Christmas celebrations, arguably the singing is the _main part_ of the celebrations, or at least part of the culmination of the celebration, i.e. the dancing around the tree. The most popular Christmas songs involve both hymns and secular songs, some newer, some older, but mostly older.

[_Det kimer nu til Julefest_](https://youtu.be/J5MX8eWoYH8)(Something like “Yuletide/Christmas is chimed in”)

[_Juletræet med sin pynt_](https://youtu.be/koQhGVhmtzY)(“The Christmas Tree with it’s decorations”)

[_Glade Jul_](https://youtu.be/QzcBK7Fe870?t=37)(The Danish translation of _Stille Nacht_, called “Merry Christmas”)

[_Dejlig er Jorden_](https://youtu.be/t1MoY_V11n8)(“Lovely is the Earth”)

[_Dejlig er den himmel blå_](https://youtu.be/hwme-i76_k0)(“Lovely is the Blue Sky”)

[_Nu har vi altså jul igen_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlR61ntkiZ8)(“Now it’s obviously Christmas once again”)

[_Julen har bragt velsignet bud_](https://youtu.be/LWMbcUvxTpY)(“Yuletide brought a sacred message”)

[_Sikken voldsom trængsel og alarm_](https://youtu.be/lEqJYGR_f3w)(“What fierce crowding and bustle”)(Here interspersed with _Nu er det Jul igen_)

Usually families will sing a handful of these while dancing around the tree, finishing up with _Nu er det Jul igen_ which involves chain-dancing around the entire home.

What is it like in your countries? Assuming similar traditions exist.

4 comments

  1. Here we call christmas songs *Villancicos*, children used to go singing in groups and [asking for the aguinaldo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHvZb0p6u2s)(something to eat or money)around their village during the holidays, but that tradition mostly disappeared, nowadays they are mostly sang in school festivals, town festivals , played as the ambient music at shops and stuff like that. Some families may still sing villancicos together on christmas eve.

    Some of the more popular ones:

    [Los peces en el rio](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oxdXV7eA3Q)

    [Campana sobre campana](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqm4Mm1UyZI)

    [Hacia Belén va una burra](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjIpjNevyYo)

    [Ay del chiquirritin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg4MbaYop30)

    [Dime niño de quien eres](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aA1AB3d8a0)

    [El tamborilero](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzcbVu9u1l4)

    [La marimorena](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fDFYHgbpAw)

    [Pastores venid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOAHlr3D1hs)

  2. They’re not much of a thing here. ‘Stille nacht’ and ‘O Dennenboom’ are the only ones that come to mind, and both are just translations from German.

    On the other hand, we do have dozens of songs for Saint-Nicholas.

  3. Christmas Carols are very popular in Poland. Singing carols by whole family after the Christmas Eve dinner is an old tradition, althought it is not as popular as it used to. I think it depends whether a particular family likes to sing together or not.

    Our traditional carols are practically 99% originally Polish ones (the 1% is *Silent Night*) from XVII-XIX centuries. The most popular are:

    * [Wśród nocnej ciszy] (https://www.youtube.com/watchv=I1NYjqKb_Co) (*In the midst of night’s quiet* )

    * [Bóg się rodzi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVU8bfAIvDk) (*The God is born* )

    * [Przybieżeli do Betlejem](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt2FfPGbYEM)

    Secular Polish Christmas songs are not that popular. Our singers are producing plenty of them, but few gained any popularity. Definitely the most popular ones are:

    * [Jest taki dzień](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sqfBMN48S0) (*There is a day like this* )

    * [Kolęda dla nieobecnych](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpGC7zKq7lI) (*A carol for the absent ones*) : for plenty of people this one is a Christmas tearjerker since it sings about loved ones that are not alive anymore to sit at the Christmas table with us.

  4. I don’t know how commonly carols/hymns are sung at home here in the UK (beyond absent-mindedly singing a verse or so while decorating the tree), but there’s still plenty of churches that hold services of [Nine Lessons and Carols](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Lessons_and_Carols) in the run-up to Christmas, or on the day itself. The exact line-up of songs varies from church to church, but as best as I can recall, the one local to me when I was young used to do the following, bookended by a procession/recession to round out the nine carols:

    [Once in Royal David’s City](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtiCLJvyePw)

    [O Come, O Come, Emmanuel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPV8PEBTAQ0)

    [Unto Us is Born a Son](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_4xMMpcqbM)

    [Hark! The Herald Angels Sing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bwn0k0k8xI)

    [O Come, All Ye Faithful](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1wHyMR_SCA)

    [Silent Night](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n036kBC1HEw)

    [O Little Town of Bethlehem](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRuXdOb6TrA)

    There used to be more of a tradition around carolling, with kids (sometimes adults, but usually kids) going door-to-door singing with the expectation that they’d get a bit of money for the song, but it’s largely dying out.

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