If one looks for “contemporary” Christian Christmas songs, there will be a number listed in a web search. The problem for many folks is that they usually don’t “sound” like Christmas! We have grown up hearing and singing beautiful traditional Christmas melodies from childhood, and they have become part of our “Christmas DNA.” Though newer songs can be fine compositions musically and textually, will they ever replace “Silent Night,” “Joy to the World,” and “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing?” Probably not, or should we say, we hope not!
And yet there are some newer Christmas songs that might in time reach that classic status. One such song is probably going to turn out to be “Joy Has Dawned upon the World,” written in 2004 by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. The Getty music team has performed it regularly in their Christmas concerts, including from New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall. It is included in their Christmas CD and can be found by multiple performers in You Tube videos. If your congregation wants to learn a new contemporary Christmas song, you can’t find one better than this. Make it your December “Hymn-of-the-Month.”
Keith Getty (b. 1974) and his wife Kristyn, the primary soloist in their concerts and CDs, have become very well-known throughout the English-speaking world over the last 25 years. They are the primary Christian hymn-writers of the 21st century. They write and perform songs with great substantial doctrinal content, and with an Irish flair in the music that almost makes one want to wear green (the color of “The Emerald Isle”). Their first great “hit” was “In Christ Alone,” which has been the number one hymn across the US and the UK. It was written in 2001 by Keith along with fellow Irish singer and song-writer Stuart Townend (b. 1963).