Hymns Based on Luke 2:8

Angels We Have Heard on High is an English Christmas carol shaped from the French tradition of “Les anges dans nos campagnes.

Away in a Manger is a late nineteenth-century American Christmas carol that joins a simple Nativity scene with a child's prayer for the presence and care of Jesus.

Gentle Mary Laid Her Child centers the Christmas mystery on a deliberate contrast: the infant resting in a manger appears lowly and easily overlooked, yet he is the Savior, the Son of God, and the King of glory.

Go, Tell It on the Mountain joins the Christmas story to a command of proclamation.

Infant Holy, Infant Lowly is an English rendering of the traditional Polish Christmas carol W Żłobie Leży.

O Come, All Ye Faithful is a Christmas hymn of invitation and adoration.

O Holy Night is the familiar English form of a French Christmas song that joins contemplation of Christ's birth with a widening vision of hope, worship, peace, and human solidarity.

O Little Town of Bethlehem is Phillips Brooks’s Christmas carol of quiet wonder, incarnation, and prayer.

O Sing a Song of Bethlehem follows the Gospel story through four places that mark the earthly life of Jesus: Bethlehem, Nazareth, Galilee, and Calvary.

On This Day Earth Shall Ring is an English Christmas paraphrase of the medieval Latin carol Personent hodie.

People, Look East is an Advent carol of active expectancy.

Silent Night, Holy Night has become so familiar that its quietness can obscure how distinctive it is.

The First Noel is a traditional English carol that turns the Nativity story into a simple, memorable narrative.

What Child Is This is a Christmas carol by William Chatterton Dix that leads worshipers from the visible humility of Bethlehem to a confession of Jesus as Christ the King.

While by My Sheep I Watched at Night, also widely known through its refrain as How Great Our Joy, is an English form of the old German Christmas carol Als ich bei meinen Schafen wacht.

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks is a close metrical paraphrase of Luke 2:8–14, following the night watch of the shepherds, the appearance of the angel, the announcement of Christ's birth, the sign of the child in the manger, and the praise of the heavenly host.

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night is unusual among familiar Christmas hymns because its strength lies not in imaginative expansion of the Nativity but in disciplined retelling.