The Christmas Revels Songbook

On every weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas (four and sometimes five weekends a year) there are about 35 to 50 of us costumed actors and reenactors who participate in putting on the Holly Old Tyme Dickens Festival up in Holly, Michigan. Held outside in the closed off streets of this beautiful Victorian village, we literally turn it into London of 1843 with vendors of all types (food, hot roasted chestnuts, and other oddities) hawking their wares, A Christmas Carol play put on twice daily, many different types of street entertainment, and, of course, Christmas music. Choirs, waits, wassailers, musicians...a constant flow of music can be heard at any given time. I happen to manage a group of high schoolers (and recent grads) who go by the name Simply Dickens. They are a vocal quartet (and sometimes a trio) that performs at the above said Dickens Festival. Much of their time is spent learning and singing the traditional old world carols, many of which have been long forgot. But the Christmas Revels have revived, through their numerous Christmas CD's, a multitude of these long lost gems. And now the Christmas Revels put a large chunk of what they have recorded into music book form! And it's from this music book that Simply Dickens get much of their material that they perform at the Holly Dickens Festival. The song titles may seem strange at first (Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, Cherry Tree Carol, Wondrous Love, Gower Wassail, Wexford Carol, etc.) which is why I would recommend getting the CD's first so you could actually hear what these wonderful old tunes sound like, THEN order the music book. I don't believe there is a finer collection of Christmas music available in one set - CD or book - and I would highly recommend this set to anyone whose Christmas Music interests go beyond Santa Coming To Town, Grandma getting run over by a reindeer, and Rudolph's shiny nose.

We bought the version of this collection that came with a CD, which includes performances of over half of the selections. We've enjoyed it annually over the holidays for the past three years, and while the CD is playing, can get the score and sing along off-key whenever we want. The selection of Christmas songs is quite good, and many of the songs we have never seen elsewhere--English, American shape-note songs, gaelic. This is a real find.