1 Gather around the Christmas tree!
Gather around the Christmas tree!
Evergreen have its branches been,
It is king of all the woodland scene;
For Christ our King is born today!
His reign shall never pass away.
Refrain
Hosanna, Hosanna,
Hosanna in the highest!
2 Gather around the Christmas tree!
Gather around the Christmas tree!
Once the pride of the mountainside,
Now cut down to grace our Christmastide;
For Christ from heav’n to earth came down,
To gain, thro' death, a nobler crown. [Refrain]
3 Gather around the Christmas tree!
Gather around the Christmas tree!
Every bough bears a burden now,--
They are gifts of love for us, we trow;
For Christ is born, His love to show,
And give good gifts to men below. [Refrain]
4 Farewell to thee, O Christmas tree!
Farewell to thee, O Christmas tree!
Twelve months o’er, we shall meet once more,
Merry welcome singing, as of yore:
For Christ now reigns, our Saviour dear,
And gives us Christmas every year! [Refrain]
Amen.
Source: The Hymnal and Order of Service #636
John Henry Hopkins, Jr MA USA 1820-1891. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, having 12 siblings, the son of pioneer parents (his father from Dublin, his mother from Hamburg) he became an ecclesiologist. His father had been an ironmaster, school teacher, lawyer, priest and second Episcopal Bishop of Vermont, (becoming presiding bishop in 1865). When his father founded the Vermont Episcopal Institute, he needed an assistant to help run it, so he picked his son to become a tutor and disciplinarian. The younger Hopkins played the flute and bugle in the school orchestra and also taught Sunday school. John Henry reflected the artistic talents of both parents in music, poetry, and art. After graduating from the University of Vermont in 1839, he returned… Go to person page >
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