In a Nutshell

Christmas Songs Flowed From Church

The music of Christmas provides part of the magic, those songs we sing at only this time of year. It makes you wonder where they all started. The first Christmas music probably began as hymns. As people started singing the songs outside of church, they were combined with folk music. Carols were a type of folk music with a religious tone. Christmas drinking songs, known as wassailing carols, used secular Christmas themes.

The word carol is derived from a medieval French and Anglo-Norman word for dancing in a circle. The word evolved to include dancing and singing, but the church discouraged dancing to music. From the 14^th to the 16^th centuries, carols were first written, sung and became the music of Christmas.

The most famous and popular Christmas carol has to be "Silent Night." The song started as a poem written in 1816 by an Austrian priest named Joseph Mohr. According to the story, the organ of the St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf could not be used because it was broken or too rusted. Mohr gave his poem to his friend, Franz Xavier Gruber, a local teacher, to compose the music. "Silent Night" was first performed by Mohr and Gruber, with the latter playing the guitar, for Midnight Mass in 1818. A musician visiting the church that night took the music with him and it remains with us today.

"Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem" also originated as a poem. It was written by Pastor Phillip Brooks, who ministered to Union soldiers during the Civil War. In 1868, music was added to create a song for the children's choir at Brooks' church. It was more than 10 years later before the song spread outside the parish.

The uncle of J.P. Morgan, one of history’s most successful bankers and financiers, wrote "Jingle Bells." It was composed in 1857 by James Pierpoint, who served in the Civil War as a Confederate soldier.

Martin Luther was once considered the author of the song, "Away In a Manager." The carol was first printed in 1885 in a Lutheran Sunday School book. Unfortunately, no one knows who penned the lyrics, however, the music was composed by William J. Kirkpatrick in 1895.

Isaac Watts wrote the lyrics to "Joy to the World" in 1719. An ordained pastor of an Independent congregation, "Joy to the World" was only one of many hymns and carols Watts wrote. The music to "Joy" is by George Frederick Handel.

Robert May, a copywriter for Montgomery Ward department stores, created the story of Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer. He wrote it in 1939 for the store, which turned it into booklet for the Montgomery Ward Santas to hand out to the children who visited them. It was Robert’s brother-in-law, songwriter Johnny Marks, who turned the story into a song.

No matter where they came from, these songs and many others like them provide the sounds of the season. Happy Holidays!

Cell Phones Keeping Teens Awake

Many adolescents have their own cell phones today and the devices have become an important part of youth culture, providing connection to others at virtually any time of the night or day. In fact, a study published in SLEEP has found young people often abuse their cell phone privileges by talking when they should be sleeping.

The study, which looked at 1,656 children between the ages of 13 and 16, was led by Jan Van den Bulck of the Leuven School for Mass Communication at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.

The study found that children who reported using their cell phones less than once a month after bedtime were found to be 1.8 times more likely to report being very tired after one year. Those who reported using their cell phones after bedtime less than once a week were 2.2 times more likely to be very tired after one year of the practice. Subjects who said they used their cell phones after bedtime once a week were 3.3 times more likely to report being very tired after a year. Those who reported the practice more than once a week were found to be 5.1 times more likely to be very tired. Overall 35 percent of the subjects who reported being very tired felt that way because of their cell phone use, according to researchers.

"Communication and staying in touch are important for young people," Van den Bulck said. "And they now have the technology to stay ‘connected’ more or less permanently. They spend a lot of time ‘connecting’ to other people, and some of them do this all hours of the night."