1 Hour of Peaceful Christmas Carols – Beautiful Piano Instrumentals with Lyrics

0:00 Silent Night - To start the hour of carols I thought an understated, relaxed version of Silent Night would be great. I really like the modulation into the last verse.

3:20 Away in a manger - This was one of the first carols I arranged when I was 8 years old. I used the melody that I grew up with for the verses and the other melody as the introduction and transitions. The two melodies sound great together.

6:43 Come Thou Long Expected Jesus - A wonderful Advent carol that lends itself to a lilting relaxed arrangement.

9:30 Once in Royal David's City - As a child I loved the Sound of Music and there was one note that I really loved (in the wedding march at the end, the penultimate note the trumpets played at the end before resolving the chord progression) and as a child I would try and figure out what that note was! I built this arrangement around the feeling that note gave me! I don't even know if my intro and transitions use the same chord progression that the trumpets played, but to me it gives me the same feeling!

13:30 See Amid the Winter Snow - It is very fitting that our lovely dog is pictured in the first photo as she has kept me going on walks this past month as I worked on the carols. I took many of the photos that I used in this hour of carols from walks around our house. I was working on See Amid the Winter Snow and we went on a walk and I saw the buck and doe (we have deer all around where we live) and I was able to get the video of them. I think the video fits beautifully with the carol. And listen out for the tinkly bit picturing the starry skies.

18:35 Infant Holy Infant Lowly - I arranged this around the little tinkly motif that I had written last year. It sounds Christmassy.

20:57 It Came Upon the Midnight Clear - My brother, sister, and I would watch the 1949 version of Little Women and this melody really reminds my sister and me of that classic movie. And see a very old photo of my son and me at a Christmas Eve service. I'm not sure they allow open candles anymore!

26:20 Angels from the Realms of Glory - In the past few years we have had so many amazing northern lights displays around our area and the dancing lights often remind me of the angels, so I used some of those we have taken photos for this carol.

29:58 O Little Town of Bethlehem - I was torn about which melody to use for this arrangement, so I used one melody for most of the carol, but the verse "How silently" uses the other melody. I like how they mix together.

34:25 In Dulce Jubilo - This is cute and Christmassy and evokes Christmases of years gone by.

36:43 O Holy Night - This just builds and builds! I always wish that this carol didn't end with O Night Divine, so I decided to do a key change and a big finale repeating the words Christ is the Lord O praise His name forever. The picture of the crowd is from our Christmas Light up that our town holds every year.

44:24 Joy to the World - Sometimes an arrangement just comes really easily and that was true of this carol. As I was arranging, I kept singing the extra words, so I have added them into the video. I just love this arrangement. I took the photos on a walk with our dog taken the same day I was recording this and I think they compliment the music beautifully.

48:17 Go Tell it on the Mountain - This just had to be laid back and jazzy - and I chose photos of mountains, but I think I encapsulated being Canadian: Verse 1 is a photo of huskys pulling sleds on a frozen lake called Spray Lakes near where we live. Verse 3 shows our family ice fishing on Spray Lakes and was taken the same day as the dogsled photo. Verse 2 was on an afternoon trip to Lake Louise and you can see people playing hockey on the frozen lake.

50:49 Angels We Have Heard on High - I wanted to add the Christmas bells sound somewhere in the hour of carols and they fit so well in this carol. And the lovely horse photos were taken at Lake Louise when we went for a day out to see the ice sculptures one year.

54:13 Hark the Herald - I tried arranging this a couple of ways, but just love the classic big sound of this carol, of course including the descant on the last verse.

57:24 O Come All Ye Faithful - I had fully arranged and recorded this and it just wasn't going right, so I scrapped it and started again. This is a worthy finale to the hour of carols with a bit of everything - a nice intro and transition part, a descant for Sing Choirs of Angels, and I especially like the ending with a gentle key change and then the 7 most beautiful chords I could figure out, walking us to a super satisfying end to the hour of carols.

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All original piano arrangements by Rachel, Harmony Hymns with Rachel © 2025