Editing Christmas carol (section)

==Church and liturgical use==
Almost all the well-known carols were not sung in church until the second half of the 19th century.{{Citation needed|date=February 2008}} ''Hymns Ancient and Modern 1861–1874'' included several carols.
[[Isaac Watts]], the "father of English hymnody", composed "[[Joy to the World]]", which has become a popular Christmas carol even though it is widely believed that Watts did not write it to be sung only at Christmas.

[[Charles Wesley]] wrote texts for at least three Christmas carols, of which the best known was originally entitled "Hark! How All the Welkin Rings", later edited to "[[Hark! the Herald Angels Sing]]".<ref>{{cite book
 | last=Dudley-Smith
 | first=Timothy
 | author-link=Timothy Dudley-Smith
 | title=A Flame of Love
 | publisher=Triangle/SPCK
 | location=London
 | year=1987
 | isbn=978-0-281-04300-2
}}</ref>
A tune from a cantata, ''[[Festgesang]]'', by [[Felix Mendelssohn]] in 1840 was adapted by William H. Cummings to fit Wesley's words. This combination first appeared in "Hymns Ancient and Modern" in 1861.{{Citation needed|date=February 2008}}

"[[Silent Night]]" comes from Austria. The carol was first performed in the [[Nikolauskirche, Oberndorf|Nikolauskirche]] in [[Oberndorf bei Salzburg|Oberndorf]] on 24 December 1818. Mohr had composed the words much earlier, in 1816, but on Christmas Eve brought them to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the church service.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/christmas/carols_2.shtml|title=Religion – Christianity: Carols – Christmas carols|website=[[BBC]]}}</ref> The first English translation was in 1871 where it was published in a [[Methodist]] hymnal.