"Love Came Down at Christmas" is a

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

Christina Rossetti Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English writer of romantic, devotional and children's poems, including " Goblin Market" and "Remember". She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well known in Bri ...

. It was first published without a title in ''Time Flies: A Reading Diary'' in 1885. It was later included in the collection ''Verses'' in 1893 under the title "Christmastide". The poem has been set to music as a

Christmas carol A Christmas carol is a carol (a song or hymn) on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French ori ...

by many composers including

R O Morris Reginald Owen Morris (3 March 1886 – 15 December 1948), known professionally and by his friends by his initials, as R.O. Morris, was a British composer and teacher. Teacher and author Morris was born in York, son of Army officer Reginald ...

, Harold Darke,

Leo Sowerby Leo Salkeld Sowerby (1 May 1895 – 7 July 1968) was an American composer and church musician. He won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1946 and was often called the “Dean of American church music” in the early to mid 20th century. Biography ...

John Kelsall John Lawrence Kelsall (31 July 1947 – 4 November 1986) was a British composer, conductor and lecturer. Studies Kelsall was born in East Retford and studied composition, piano and organ at Aberdeen University, gaining an MA, with composition ...

and

John Rutter John Milford Rutter (born 24 September 1945) is an English composer, conductor, editor, arranger, and record producer, mainly of choral music. Biography Born on 24 September 1945 in London, the son of an industrial chemist and his wife, Rutte ...

and is also sung to the traditional Irish melody "Garton". More recently, the poem was given a modern treatment by Christian band Jars of Clay on their 2007 album, ''

Christmas Songs Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject m ...

''. American composer Jennifer Higdon set the text for solo soprano, harp and four-part chorus. A new setting by the British composer David J Loxley-Blount was performed in Southwark Cathedral on 8 December 2014 by the Financial Times Choir conducted by Paul Ayres. It was repeated by the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree on 11 December 2014. Studwell describes the poem as "simple, direct and sincere" and notes that it is a rare example of a carol which has overcome the disadvantage of "not having a tune (or two or three) which has caught the imagination of holiday audiences."Studwell, William Emmett. ''The Christmas Carol Reader'', p.100
Google Books
/ref> ::Love came down at Christmas, ::Love all lovely, Love Divine, ::Love was born at Christmas, ::Star and Angels gave the sign. ::Worship we the Godhead, ::Love Incarnate, Love Divine, ::Worship we our Jesus, ::But wherewith for sacred sign? ::Love shall be our token, ::Love be yours and love be mine, ::Love to God and all men, ::Love for plea and gift and sign.

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Hymns and Carols of Christmas
{{authority control 1885 poems Christmas carols Poetry by Christina Rossetti

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