Christmas Carols

"Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song." - Psalm 149: 1

This picture is from a medieval collection of Christmas Noels or carols from the 16th century.

Our daughter's school had their Christmas concert last week and we were treated to a marvelous concert of Puer Natus in Bethlehem, In Dulci Jubilo, and Psallite. It was a remarkable concert, all the more amazing because it is such a small school (150) and a school that originally grew from homeschooling families. Click here to listen to an excerpt. The string quartet was made up from the parents, but the singers were all 2nd-12th graders. It was beautiful.

This History of Christmas Carols site suggests that a Roman bishop in AD 129 was the first to advise that an Angel's Hymn be sung at a Christmas service. St. Francis of Assisi was credited for reviving Christmas songs when he included canticles in his nativity plays in 1223.

If you like to learn some of these old carols (especially wonderful if you are learning Latin together), you will love Choral Wiki. There is a treasure trove of free choral music (piano music included), MIDI files, and other resources to sing them at home.

Ever since we were married, we have watched a video of Lessons and Carols from Kings College every Christmas. On YouTube.com, we found an excerpt, Once in Royal David's City. Enjoy!

Snowflake Templates, Snow Crystals

It's that time of year again! Here are some of our favorite sites for enjoying the beauty of snowflakes, reading about the science and mathematics of their formation, and making your own to put up on the window or Christmas tree.

Snowflake Templates at Yarn Owl
More Snowflake Patterns

For more Snowflake Study consider Koch Snowflake (Fractal) and the beautiful Snow Crystals site.

Do you know where the saying about no two snowflakes are alike came from? The research of a self-educated Vermont farmer who became fascinated by the beauty of snow crystals.

"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated., When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind."

We have both the Caldecott medal winner Snowflake Bentley and the book which contains many of his original photographs Snow Crystals.



If you freeze a piece of black velvet, it keeps individual snowflakes long enough so that you can see their individual details more clearly.