From Messiah to the Manger:How Handel Leads Us into Christmas Carols
- Ken Kalis
- Dec 20, 2025
- 3 min read
We dressed up in top hats, wore scraffs and carried candles when we caroled in the 1950s.
I loved it then the singing, the carols, and hot chocolate and warm fellowship
We like to go to the Old People's Home in Elizabeth to sing to the shut-ins,
Now the young carolers come to sing for me and the other old timers at Riverside Presbyterian House.
I think I enjoy it more now than then, the Joy of Christmas and the Love of Jesus still shine.
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When George Frideric Handel composed Messiah in 1741, he did not set out to write Christmas music.
He set out to proclaim Christ.
That is why Messiah stands so naturally at the threshold of Advent and Christmas. It does not begin with shepherds or angels or a manger. It begins with a voice crying in the wilderness:
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.”— Isaiah 40:1
Handel’s genius was not merely musical — it was biblical. Charles Jennens, who compiled the libretto, wove together Scripture so that Messiah tells the whole story of Christ:
• Promise• Incarnation• Suffering• Resurrection• Reign
By the time we arrive at the Hallelujah Chorus, we are not merely celebrating a birth — we are confessing a King:
“And He shall reign for ever and ever.”
That is why Messiah does something no single carol can do: it frames Christmas inside the whole Gospel.
But Messiah does not replace carols. It prepares us for them.
From Proclamation to Participation
Messiah is largely something we hear.
Carols are something we sing.
Handel proclaims Christ to us in majestic Scripture and soaring sound. Christmas carols invite us to answer — with our own voices.
After hearing:
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given…”
we are ready to sing:
O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
The movement is important:
Messiah → CarolsProclamation → ParticipationHearing → Confessing
Carols are not sentimental add-ons. They are the church responding to what has been declared.
Why the Old Carols Endure
The carols we love most endure for one reason: they are theologically dense.
Consider just a few:
“Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”— Incarnation, reconciliation, the Second Adam, new birth.
“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”— Exile, longing, redemption, covenant fulfillment.
“Of the Father’s Love Begotten”— Eternal generation of the Son, Trinitarian doctrine set to song.
These are not mere mood pieces. They are mini-Messiahs — Scripture and doctrine sung by ordinary believers.
This is where Handel and the carols meet.
Messiah gives us the grand architecture of redemption.
Carols furnish the living room of the soul.
Singing as a Theological Act
When we sing carols, we are doing more than remembering a story.
We are confessing:
• That God entered history• That the Word became flesh• That salvation came not by force, but by a Child• That the manger leads inevitably to the cross — and then to the throne
This is why Christmas singing matters.
It forms the heart. It teaches the faith. It joins us to generations who sang these same truths in darker times than ours.
Handel stands at the doorway saying, “Behold your King.”The carols answer, “Come, let us adore Him.”
From Hearing to Singing
So as we move from Messiah into caroling this season, let us do so consciously.
Let us hear the Scriptures proclaimed in Handel’s oratorio —and then lift our own voices with the church across centuries.
From Isaiah to the angels. From prophecy to praise. From Handel’s score to the songs we love to sing.
“Sing unto the LORD a new song…for He hath done marvellous things.”— Psalm 98:1
Closing Prayer
**Lord Jesus Christ, You are the Word made flesh, the Child promised, the Man who suffered, the King who reigns.
As we hear Your Word proclaimedand lift our voices in song, tune our hearts to love what is true, beautiful, and eternal.
May our singing this Christmasbe worship — not noise, confession — not sentiment, and joy rooted in truth.
Amen.**
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1. Joy to the world; the Lord is come;
Let Earth receive her King;
Let ev'ry heart prepare him room,
And heav'n and nature sing.
2. Joy to the Earth, the Savior reigns;
Our mortal songs employ,
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains,
Repeat the sounding joy.
3. No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make his blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.
4. He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of his righteousness,
And wonders of his love.
--Author: Isaac Watts (1719)
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