One of the best-known Christmas carols is ‘Once in royal David’s city’. It was written by Cecil Frances Alexander whose husband became bishop of Derry. Mrs Alexander, as she was known, wrote 400 hymns, including ‘All things bright and beautiful’ and ‘There is a green hill far away’. She wrote hymns for children, many of which were published in her Hymns for Little Children.
Carols explain the wonder of the Christmas story. They focus on the birth of Jesus who changed the world and the lives of countless people.
Once in royal David’s city, stood a lowly cattle shed, where a mother laid her baby, in a manger for his bed: Mary was that mother mild, Jesus Christ her little child. He came down to earth from heaven, who is God and Lord of all, and his shelter was a stable, and his cradle was a stall: with the poor and mean and lowly, lived on earth our Saviour holy.
