Here is my attempt to form a spiritual judgment on these well-known songs about Christmas or the birth of Jesus. This is still not about the music. I'm considering only the words, and their appropriateness for praise of God and proclamation of the gospel in our worship. I'm using these categories:

• A) Songs about Christmas
• B) Songs with unscriptural events or ideas
• C) Unspiritual or unedifying songs
• D) Spiritual songs about the birth of Jesus.
• Z) Other

[B? C] Away in a Manger
This is certainly not a spiritual song, and some of its details have no scriptural basis -- they are based on medieval legend, or were invented to fit the emotional mood. The carol fits into an old tradition of "lullabies" based on the birth of Jesus. For a mother to sing to a restless child, it may be acceptable. For an adult church of God to present to her Lord, it is not. It is included in Christian Hymns #2 and Great Songs of the Church #2.

[C] Silent Night
Another lullaby devoid of spirituality, unsuitable for worship. It is included in Songs of the Church; Hymns for Worship; Great Songs of the Church; Christian Hymns #2, and others.

[A] I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
That was easy. It's not included in any of our hymnals.

[B] We Three Kings
Unscriptural (legendary) details probably kept it out of our hymnals, although there is some attempt at a spiritual lesson.

[B] Love Came Down at Christmas-Time
Obviously unscriptural, and not in our hymnals.

[A] O Savior, whom this holy morn
"This holy morn" can only refer to Christmas. A slight adjustment, "that" holy morn could allow a reference to the birthday, whenever it was. Some Christians may be uncomfortable with the idea that there was something "holy" about the day. It's not in our hymnals.

[Z] Joy to the World
This is a trick question. Isaac Watts' fine version of the 98th Psalm has no connection to either popular or religious Christmas observance. It deserves to be treated on its undoubted merits as a psalm of praise to the God of Heaven who demands obedience and is coming in judgment. It's included in all of our hymnals except Sacred Selections; probably omitted there because it was mistaken for a Christmas carol.

[A] Go tell it on the mountain
Another easy judgment: the reference to "Christmas" makes it unusable, although there was at least an attempt to find a spiritual theme. It's not in our hymnals.

[A] Good Christian Men, Rejoice
A spiritual theme, but spoiled for use by the "today" (which for me can only mean "Christmas anniversary") and by the medieval legend ("ox and ass bow"). Possibly (I could speculate) the legend began as a mythic reference to Isaiah 1:3 "The ox knows its owner; and the donkey, its master's manger: but Israel does not know; my people do not understand." So perhaps the words are not a false literal assertion about a fictional event, but a metaphorical reminder that Jesus' birth was the first step toward his inevitable public rejection and crucifixion. (We would still have to consider whether this kind of poetic technique may be too subtle to be effective for a "general audience." The same question is raised by religious works of famous poets, like Christina Rosetti's "In the Bleak Midwinter" and Sidney Lanier's poem about the crucifixion, "Into the woods my Master went."). Perhaps we need a category "E" (scriptural and spiritual, but not folk). It's not in our hymnals.

[A] Christians, awake, salute the happy morn
This ancient Latin hymn was meant to be used as part of Christmas services: but for us, surely it is the Christ, not the day, that should be hailed. Not in our hymnals.

[D] To us a Child of Hope is born
This is simply a metrical version of Isaiah 9. We had better not reject it because it is incompatible with our theology! (as I think has sometimes happened) editors were so afraid of some false doctrine that they excluded songs that simply quoted scripture! This is tantamount to affirming that scripture teaches false doctrine. We may need more Bible study before we can understand what we sing. But this fulfilled prophecy is part of the Gospel, and well worth singing. It's in Songs of the Church and Great Songs of the Church, and may have omitted from the more country-music-oriented hymnals simply because of its tune.

[D] Hark! The herald angels sing
Charles Wesley, as a member of the church of England, celebrated the annual holy days including Christmas. But this song contains not a word about the celebration, and everything about the event and its importance. Note the variety of metaphorical language (firmly founded on scripture) and the number of scriptural references: hardly a phrase isn't a quotation or allusion of some verse). This is characteristic of Wesley's hymns.

This again poses the question: how much can we expect people to understand these metaphors and allusions? But this time the answer is simple: to understand the Bible, we must understand them. Wesley not only helps us understand the Bible, but he helps us understand the necessity for this kind of language in the Bible. (The Holy Spirit was not just being obscure to avoid being understood--there is an important divine purpose that only this kind of language can serve.)

Not in Sacred Selections, which rigorously excludes anything related to Jesus' birth, but in other hymnals. Compare another fine song by Wesley on the same subject (only in Great Songs of the Church):
Hail, thou long-expected Jesus,
Born to set Thy people free,
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel's strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art,
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart!
Born Thy people to deliver;
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious Kingdom bring....

[D] As with gladness men of old
This uses the wise men as a spiritual example of a zealous quest for truth, a good lesson at any time. Not in any of our hymnals.

[D] Brightest and best of the stars of the morning
Hymn by Reginald Heber, offering another perspective on the wise men, as a meditation on what kind of gifts we should be offering. This is another lesson that we need to hear more often. Not in any of our hymnals.

[D] Lo, how a rose e'er blooming
A 15-century German carol, filled with scriptural allusions, built around the "Rose of Sharon" through Isaiah's "sprig out of dry ground", well worth meditating on, and well worth singing. It requires some knowledge of the Old Testament, so we may need to study it first. Only in Great Songs of the Church, Revised.

I think some people might be disturbed by "when half spent was the night" and "amid the cold of winter" which if literally describing the time of Jesus' birth, would be unscriptural. But is that what the poet is doing? Or is this, as in the hymns from Wesley and Heber, expanding on the scriptural "sun" metaphor? Consider: midwinter and midnight are times when the (physical) sun is most remote. Using the figure of the Messiah as the "sun of righteousness," how would you describe the time when God's people felt most thoroughly deserted, when all the symbols of their covenant with God seemed broken: the land ruled by pagan foreigners and their alien laws, demon-possession prefiguring the growing power of Satan, and even the priesthood was a tool for violent oppression? "Midwinter midnight" fits well. And after the poet's use and expansion of the "flower" figure, we should have been prepared for something more than crass literalism in his other expressions.

This may explain another mystery: why did 5th-century Christians begin to celebrate Christmas in December? It certainly wasn't based on the Gospels, even the apocryphal ones. The answer might lie here: December 25 was midwinter, and the date was intended to suggest the mythic "sun" metaphor. This illustrates the danger of unrecognized metaphors: most people today probably do believe the Bible teaches Jesus was literally born on that date, but do not see any connection between it and midwinter.

[D] Let all mortal flesh keep silence
A classic reminder, from the 5th-century Syrian church, of the importance of reverence toward holy things, directed (properly) toward God's actions rather than the day. Not in any of our hymnals.

[D] Of the Father's love begotten
Another classic 5th-century Latin reflection on the incarnation. Not in any of our hymnals. Compare also this neglected hymn, also by by the same author, Aurelius Clemens Prudentius:
Earth has many a noble city;
Bethlehem, thou dost all excel:
Out of thee the Lord from heaven
Came to rule his Israel.
Fairer than the sun at morning
Was the star that told his birth,
To the world its God announcing
Seen in fleshly form on earth.
Eastern sages at his cradle
Make oblations rich and rare;
See them give, in deep devotion,
Gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
Sacred gifts of mystic meaning:
Incense doth their God disclose,
Gold the King of kings proclaimeth,
Myrrh his sepulcher foreshows.
Jesus, whom the Gentiles worshipped
At thy glad Epiphany,
Unto thee, with God the Father
And the Spirit, glory be.

[C?] While shepherds watched their flocks
A "scripture song" from the appendix to the metrical psalter by Tate and Brady. the practice of singing songs "of human composition" was widely condemned then: it was radical enough to sing "scripture songs" from outside the book of Psalms. Understandably under the circumstances, there is little spiritual response to, or reflection on the events recounted. So it is obviously scriptural, but not obviously spiritual, and I'm not sure how it should be used. We might sing it, followed by one of Wesley's hymns to respond to the Gospel message.

Stephen Hutcheson, 2002