A mini course to start you off
Start with holding and tuning your ukulele, then learn your first chords, strumming and how to read the book.
The Ukulele Christmas Songbook
Jingle Strums
A look inside
Open the book. Find your song.
Take a look at a complete song opening and a few pages from the beginner course. Chords and words sit on the left, with the melody on the right, so everything you need is in view. The course walks you through the basics before you start playing your Christmas favourites.
Made to be played
Less figuring it out. More singing along.
For your first Christmas with a ukulele, and every one after it.
Complete sing-along versions
Lyrics and chord diagrams stay together, with every included verse printed in full. Shchedryk is an instrumental arrangement.
The melody in notation and tab
Engraved fresh for GCEA tuning on the facing page, with the words under the notes. Read it, or ignore it completely and just strum.
A caroling section at the back
The words on their own, set large enough to put on the table and share, for when everyone sings and only you are playing.
Why I made it
Something to come back to,
every Christmas.
Jonas
Short version: after fourteen years of putting songs on a screen, I wanted to make one you can actually hold.
And if I was only ever going to make one book, it was always going to be this one. December is the best time of the year to be a ukulele player. It’s the one month when people who never touch an instrument will happily sing along in somebody’s kitchen and you only need a few chords to be the one making that happen.
More about making the book
I started UkuTabs in 2012 and I have been adding to it nearly every week since. That is a long time to spend on something that only ever exists as pixels. Somewhere in there I got the itch to make a real object, the kind that sits on a shelf and gets pulled out again next year. Once that idea turns up it doesn’t really leave.
So it isn’t a quick one off. Public domain carols only, which meant checking every melody and every line of words against dated printed sources before any of it could go in. That took months. It’s also why you won’t find the modern Christmas pop songs here: those are still in copyright and they aren’t mine to print. The carols are. People have been singing them for two hundred years and more, which feels like the right material for a book you keep.
Jingle Strums
A songbook for this Christmas. And the next.
Forty classic carols and songs. Four hidden gems. One ukulele.
Find your favourites
All 44 Christmas ukulele songs, with chords
Every song in the book, in the order it appears. Each one also has a free page here on UkuTabs with the same chords, words and tab, so you can practice from your phone and play from the book without anything shifting.
- Joy to the World
- Silent Night
- Jingle Bells
- Go Tell It on the Mountain
- Away in a Manger
- Up on the Housetop
- O Christmas Tree
- I Saw Three Ships
- Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
- Deck the Halls
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas
- Good King Wenceslas
- The First Noel
- Angels We Have Heard on High
- O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
- Here We Come A-Caroling
- While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
- The Holly and the Ivy
- O Come, All Ye Faithful
- Ding Dong! Merrily on High
- We Three Kings
- The Twelve Days of Christmas
- Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella
- O Little Town of Bethlehem
- Angels from the Realms of Glory
- What Child Is This
- I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
- In Dulci Jubilo
- Once in Royal David’s City
- God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
- It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
- Fum, Fum, Fum
- Coventry Carol
- Sussex Carol
- In the Bleak Midwinter
- Shchedryk (Carol of the Bells)
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
- Still, Still, Still
- O Holy Night
- Auld Lang Syne
- Pat-a-Pan
- Wexford Carol
- He Is Born (Il Est Né)
- Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
Before you start
Questions
Do I need to read music to use this book?
No. Every song gives you the chord names above the words, plus chord diagrams with finger numbers, so you can play it the way you would play anything on UkuTabs. The notation and tab are there if you want the melody, and you can ignore them completely if you do not.
What tuning is it written for?
Standard GCEA ukulele tuning. The tab was engraved fresh for it rather than converted from guitar, so the fingerings are ones that actually sit well on a ukulele.
Is this the same as the free songs on UkuTabs?
The song pages here carry the same chords, words and tab, so you can practice from your phone and play from the book without anything shifting. The strum suggestion and tempo on a song page are that page’s own and may differ from the book. What the book adds is everything a screen is bad at: one song per opening, no scrolling, no ads, the melody in notation and tab, a strumming pattern per song and a caroling section you can put on the table so everyone sings from the same words.
Are these songs really public domain?
Yes, and that was the slowest part of making it. Every melody and every set of words was checked against dated printed sources before it went in, and the edition each one was verified against is documented per song. That is also why you will not find the modern Christmas pop songs here. Those are still in copyright and they are not mine to print.
Which songs are the four hidden gems?
Pat-a-Pan, the Wexford Carol, He Is Born and Infant Holy, Infant Lowly. They close the book. None of them get played half as often as they deserve, and all four are lovely on a ukulele.
What language is the book in?
Mostly English. The lesson pages, the song histories and the caroling section are all in English. Several songs also print their original words, so there is Catalan, German, French, Latin, Ukrainian and Scots in there too, set as they are actually sung. Chord diagrams, notation and tab read the same in any language, so the playing side of the book works wherever you are.
Is there a PDF version?
Not yet. The paperback is out now and a PDF will follow, but I would rather do it properly than rush it out for this Christmas. If you want to know when it lands, the monthly newsletter is where I will say so. In the meantime every song in the book also has a free page here on UkuTabs, which is the closest thing to a screen version.
What are the easiest Christmas songs to play on ukulele?
Go Tell It on the Mountain is the easiest of them all, at two chords. Silent Night, O Christmas Tree and I Saw Three Ships need three each. Joy to the World, Away in a Manger, Up on the Housetop and Jolly Old Saint Nicholas get by on four. In this book every one of those sits inside the first nine songs, because the easier ones sit near the front, so you can start at page one and work forward instead of hunting for something you can manage.
What chords do I need to play Christmas songs on ukulele?
G and C do most of the work. Across all forty-four, G turns up in 33 songs and C in 33 too, then D in 24, Em in 20, Am in 17 and F in 16, so those six shapes carry the bulk of a Christmas repertoire. Individual songs still reach for a seventh or eighth chord, which is why every song page here lists the ones it uses and the book prints the shapes with finger numbers right next to the words.
Are Christmas carols public domain?
The old ones usually are. Silent Night, Deck the Halls, Joy to the World and the rest of the traditional carols are long out of copyright, which is why they can be printed and shared freely. The modern Christmas standards are a different story: songs like Rudolph, Winter Wonderland and Last Christmas are still very much in copyright. That is the line this book sticks to, and every melody and lyric in it was checked against dated printed sources before it went in.
Can I use these arrangements at a carol service or a singalong?
Please do. The songs are public domain and the caroling section at the back exists exactly for that, with the words set large enough to read across a table. Playing, singing and photocopying a page for the people in the room is all fine.
For your copy
Corrections
Any corrections to the printed book get listed here, with the printing they apply to. There are none yet.
Found something that looks wrong? Please tell me and I will fix it here and in the next printing: send me a message.
With thanks to everyone who has written in. Anyone who reports a correction gets named here, unless they would rather not be.
Behind the songs
Where every carol came from
Every melody and every line of words was checked against a dated printed source before it went into the book. This is that record, one row per song.
Explore the sourcesSources for all 44 songs
The bar for inclusion was publication in the United States before 1931 and every credited author dead before 1956. Where a row says traditional (anonymous) there is no known author to name, and no death year is claimed. Collectors and informants are named for provenance, not as authors. The arrangements, chord voicings, engraving and instructional text in the book are new work and are not public domain.
| # | Song | Music | Words | First published | Verified against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joy to the World | "Antioch", Lowell Mason (d. 1872), credited "from Handel" (d. 1759) | Isaac Watts (d. 1748) | words 1719 (The Psalms of David Imitated); tune 1836 | Melody checked note by note against a public-domain Antioch setting; period witness Mason, The Modern Psalmist 1839 p.144 (archived) |
| 2 | Silent Night | Franz Xaver Gruber (d. 1863) | Joseph Mohr (d. 1848); English by John Freeman Young (d. 1885) | written 1818, first printed 1833 (Friese, Dresden); English text 1859 | Verified against the archived source set: Young's three 1859 stanzas plus Mohr's German first stanza as bonus block |
| 3 | Jingle Bells | James Lord Pierpont (d. 1893) | James Lord Pierpont (d. 1893) | 1857 (The One Horse Open Sleigh) | Verified against the archived source set:; my own arrangement, no post-1931 interjections |
| 4 | Go Tell It on the Mountain | African-American spiritual, traditional (anonymous) | Christmas stanzas by John W. Work II (d. 1925) | tune and refrain first printed 1909 (Fenner, Hampton Institute; scan archived); Work II stanzas printed 1940 by Work III | Public domain in the US by verified non-renewal: the 1967-69 Catalog of Copyright Entries was searched clean and the Work estate renewed another song in that window while letting this lapse. clear in the EU via Work II d. 1925. Fresh harmonization, nothing from any arranged edition |
| 5 | Away in a Manger | "Cradle Song", W. J. Kirkpatrick (d. 1921) | traditional (anonymous American) | stanzas 1-2 1882 (The Christian Cynosure); third stanza 1892; tune 1895 | Verified against the archived source set:; Kirkpatrick tune, anonymous text layers only |
| 6 | Up on the Housetop | Benjamin Hanby (d. 1867) | Benjamin Hanby (d. 1867) | written 1864, first published 1866 (Our Song Birds vol. 4, Root and Cady) | Verified against the archived source set: Hanby's three verses, no "Paulina" verses |
| 7 | O Christmas Tree | German traditional (anonymous), tune printed 1799 | English text traditional (anonymous, as credited "German Song" in the source); German bonus stanza by August Zarnack (d. 1827) | tune printed 1799; this English text 1916 | Wier, Songs the Children Love to Sing (Appleton, 1916) pp.194-195, scan archived in song folder; Kommersbuch 1880 German witness archived |
| 8 | I Saw Three Ships | traditional (anonymous) | traditional (anonymous) | printed 1833 by William Sandys (collector, d. 1874) | Sandys 1833 nine-verse text; melody checked note by note against the reference chain |
| 9 | Jolly Old Saint Nicholas | James R. Murray (d. 1905) | Emily Huntington Miller (d. 1913) | words Dec 1865 (The Little Corporal); tune 1874 (School Chimes) | School Chimes 1874 p.43 and Franklin Square Song Collection 1881 p.80, both archived; verse 3 prints the 1881 text |
| 10 | Deck the Halls | Welsh traditional "Nos Galan" (anonymous), 18th c. | English text traditional (anonymous), 1877 Pennsylvania School Journal; the 1862 Oliphant text (d. 1873) is the lineage but is not printed | Welsh tune 18th c.; this English text 1877 | 1877 Pennsylvania School Journal text per the vetted recipe |
| 11 | We Wish You a Merry Christmas | traditional (anonymous), West Country | traditional (anonymous) | no pre-1931 print of the tune exists; exhaustive negative search recorded at the archived source set:571 | Fresh transcription of the bare traditional tune; CC-licensed Hardy ABC used as checksum only, never as authority |
| 12 | Good King Wenceslas | "Tempus Adest Floridum", anonymous, Piae Cantiones 1582 | John Mason Neale (d. 1866) | words 1853 (Carols for Christmas-Tide); tune 1582 | Machine-verified melody chain; Bramley and Stainer 1871 period witness archived |
| 13 | The First Noel | traditional (anonymous) | traditional (anonymous); collectors Gilbert (d. 1839) and Sandys (d. 1874) | words printed 1823 (Gilbert); tune printed 1833 (Sandys) | Gilbert/Sandys text, standard six-verse selection; melody checked note by note, key per Sandys 1833 |
| 14 | Angels We Have Heard on High | "Gloria", French traditional (anonymous; worst-case 1842 attribution d. 1905) | French text traditional (anonymous); English by James Chadwick (d. 1882) | tune printed 1842 (Choix de cantiques); English 1862 (Crown of Jesus) | Melody verified against pre-1931-lineage mirrors only; harmony written fresh, the Barnes 1937 setting untouched |
| 15 | O Come, O Come, Emmanuel | "Veni Emmanuel", anonymous, 15th c. | Latin antiphons anonymous, medieval; English by John Mason Neale (d. 1866) and Henry Baker (d. 1877) | English text 1861 (Hymns Ancient and Modern) | 1861 Hymns Ancient and Modern scan, hymn 36 (provenance in song folder); New Hymnal 1916 archived; harmony original, the Vaughan Williams 1906 setting untouched |
| 16 | Here We Come A-Caroling | traditional (anonymous), Yorkshire | traditional (anonymous) | printed 1871 (Bramley d. 1917, Stainer d. 1901) | Bramley and Stainer 1871 carol 37, scans archived |
| 17 | While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks | "Christmas", Handel (d. 1759), arr. Lowell Mason (d. 1872) | Nahum Tate (d. 1715) | words 1700; tune 1728, arrangement 1821 | Two independent MIDI references agree on all 43 notes |
| 18 | The Holly and the Ivy | traditional (anonymous); collected by Cecil Sharp (d. 1924) | traditional (anonymous) | collected 1909, published 1911 | Sharp, English Folk-Carols (Novello, 1911) pp.17-18, archived, adjudicated transcription; text verbatim |
| 19 | O Come, All Ye Faithful | "Adeste Fideles", John Francis Wade (d. 1786) | Latin: Wade (d. 1786); English by Frederick Oakeley (d. 1880) | tune 1751 (Cantus Diversi); English 1852 (Murray's Hymnal) | Verified two-witness melody chain; New Hymnal 1916 pp.86-87 archived |
| 20 | Ding Dong! Merrily on High | "Branle de l'Official", Thoinot Arbeau (d. 1593) | G. R. Woodward (d. 1934) | tune 1589 (Orchesographie); words 1924 (Cambridge Carol-Book) | Cambridge Carol-Book 1924 p.7 and Arbeau 1589 pages, archived |
| 21 | We Three Kings | John Henry Hopkins Jr. (d. 1891) | John Henry Hopkins Jr. (d. 1891) | 1863 (Carols, Hymns and Songs) | Hopkins first edition (1863) and third edition (1882) pages archived |
| 22 | The Twelve Days of Christmas | traditional (anonymous); standard form by Frederic Austin (d. 1952) | traditional (anonymous), 18th c. | traditional text 18th c.; Austin's standard form 1909 (Novello) | Austin 1909 Novello score, complete, archived; the melody authority, verified cell by cell |
| 23 | Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella | Provencal traditional (anonymous; attribution to Saboly, 17th c., treated as unproven) | Provencal original traditional (anonymous); English by E. Cuthbert Nunn (d. 1914) | Provencal original in print 1688; Nunn's English and setting 1909 | Nunn 1909 (archived PDF and page crop); text verbatim, all four verses, melody per Nunn |
| 24 | O Little Town of Bethlehem | "St. Louis", Lewis Redner (d. 1908) | Phillips Brooks (d. 1893) | words and tune 1868 | The New Hymnal, hymn 78 (archived scan; 1916 or 1918 printing, edition year to pin before release, open item A19) plus adjudicated two-reader decode |
| 25 | Angels from the Realms of Glory | "Regent Square", Henry Smart (d. 1879) | James Montgomery (d. 1854) | words 24 Dec 1816 (Sheffield Iris), revised 1825; tune 1867 | Open Hymnal Regent Square melody, verified against an independent MIDI |
| 26 | What Child Is This | "Greensleeves", anonymous, 16th c. (documented from 1580) | William Chatterton Dix (d. 1898) | words written 1865, published as the carol 1868/1871 (Bramley and Stainer) | Bramley and Stainer carol form, archived scans; two-reader adjudicated decode |
| 27 | I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day | "Waltham", John Baptiste Calkin (d. 1905) | Henry W. Longfellow (d. 1882) | words 1865; tune 1872 (The Hymnary) | Open Hymnal ABC verified 100 percent against an independent MIDI; harmony written fresh, the 1956 Marks lineage excluded |
| 28 | In Dulci Jubilo | German traditional (anonymous), c. 1400 | German-Latin text 14th c., attributed to Heinrich Suso (d. 1366); English by R. L. de Pearsall (d. 1856) | manuscript c. 1400; Pearsall's English 1837 | Hutchins 1916 printing of the Pearsall macaronic text; Cowley Carol Book 1922 witness archived |
| 29 | Once in Royal David's City | "Irby", Henry J. Gauntlett (d. 1876) | Cecil Frances Alexander (d. 1895) | words 1848 (Hymns for Little Children); tune 1849 | Triple-witnessed melody (three independent sources identical); New Hymnal 1916 p.435 archived |
| 30 | God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen | traditional (anonymous), 18th c. or earlier | traditional (anonymous); earliest manuscript c. 1650s | in print by the 18th c.; standard form 1871 (Bramley and Stainer) | Bramley and Stainer 1871 pages archived (verse read at high zoom) plus my blessed chart drop |
| 31 | It Came Upon the Midnight Clear | "Carol", Richard Storrs Willis (d. 1900) | Edmund H. Sears (d. 1876) | words 29 Dec 1849 (Christian Register); tune 1850 | The New Hymnal 1916 hymn 79 primary plus Dann 1910 witness, both archived, three readers unanimous |
| 32 | Fum, Fum, Fum | Catalan traditional (anonymous); collected by Joaquim Pecanins (d. 1948), 1904 | Catalan text traditional (anonymous); English verse 1 by Kurt Schindler (d. 1935) | collected 1904, first published 1905; Catalan text authority 1909 (L'Avenc); Schindler's English 1922 (Ditson) | Marzo, Fifty Christmas Carols of All Nations (1923) p.57 melody authority; L'Avenc 1909 second witness and Catalan text; Schindler/Ditson 1922 octavo for the English, all archived |
| 33 | Coventry Carol | anonymous, 1591 (the Mawdyke transcription; transcriber dead by the early 1600s) | Robert Croo, manuscript 1534 (exact death year unknown, dead well before 1600) | manuscript 1534/1591; first printed by Thomas Sharp 1817 (text) and 1825 (music) | Bramley and Stainer complete edition (1878) carol 61, archived; Sharp 1825 plates archived as the canonical witness |
| 34 | Sussex Carol | traditional (anonymous); melody taken down from Harriet Verrall (informant, d. 1918), Monk's Gate, 1904 | words after Luke Wadding (d. c. 1691); the familiar variant published anonymously 1905/1919 | words 1684 (A Small Garland); this melody printed 1905 (JFSS) | Journal of the Folk-Song Society vol 2 (1905) p.127, the raw field notation predating every protected harmonization, archived |
| 35 | In the Bleak Midwinter | "Cranham", Gustav Holst (d. 1934) | Christina Rossetti (d. 1894) | words by 1872; tune 1906 (The English Hymnal, its first publication) | The English Hymnal 1906 pp.44-45, archived; melody and text both from the first printing |
| 36 | Shchedryk (Carol of the Bells) | Mykola Leontovych (d. 1921) | none printed: instrumental by design (see note below) | first edition 1918 (Kyiv) | Photographed 1918 first-edition fragment archived as identity witness; arrangement authority is my own tab |
| 37 | Hark! The Herald Angels Sing | Felix Mendelssohn (d. 1847), arr. W. H. Cummings (d. 1915) | Charles Wesley (d. 1788) | words 1739; tune 1840 (Festgesang), Cummings pairing c. 1855-57 | The New Hymnal 1916 pp.88-89, archived (rhythm and underlay); melody authority my tab, verified |
| 38 | Still, Still, Still | Austrian traditional (anonymous), Salzburg | Austrian traditional (anonymous); German text only, no English printed (see note below) | text printed 1865 (Suess); this tune line in print by 1884 | Suess 1865 (text), Hartmann/Abele 1884 and Werckmeister 1917 p.566 (melody line only), all archived |
| 39 | O Holy Night | Adolphe Adam (d. 1856) | Placide Cappeau (d. 1877); English by John S. Dwight (d. 1893) | French 1847; Dwight's English 1855 | Schirmer 1871 plate (congress-entered 1871 on the plate), archived; Dwight's text verbatim from it |
| 40 | Auld Lang Syne | Scots traditional (anonymous; even the strictest attribution, Shield, d. 1829) | Robert Burns (d. 1796) | words written down 1788, printed 1796; joined to this tune by 1799 | Thomson, Select Collection vol II (1803) p.68, music and all five Burns verses, archived |
| 41 | Pat-a-Pan | Bernard de La Monnoye (d. 1728) | Bernard de La Monnoye (d. 1728), Burgundian dialect; English by Percy Dearmer (d. 1936) | 1701 (Noei borguignon); English 1928 (Oxford Book of Carols) | OBC 1928 true first impression, tune line only (the Shaw/Vaughan Williams setting is excluded), archived; the 1701/1776 prints carry no notation, so OBC 1928 is the tune's earliest available print |
| 42 | Wexford Carol | Irish traditional (anonymous); communicated by W. H. Grattan Flood (d. 1928) | traditional (anonymous), 17th c. or earlier, as the OBC page prints it | printed 1928 (Oxford Book of Carols carol 14) | OBC carol 14, melody line only per the locked vetting, never the Shaw harmony; archived (1956 impression of the unchanged 1928 plates plus the imprint page) |
| 43 | He Is Born (Il Est Né) | French traditional (anonymous), "ancien air de chasse" | French traditional (anonymous); French text only, no English printed (see note below) | first printed 1862 (Grosjean, organ variant); vocal print 1915 | Choix de chants liturgiques, Collège Stanislas (1915) pp.148-149, melody and French text authority, archived; Grosjean 1862 archived witness |
| 44 | Infant Holy, Infant Lowly | Polish traditional (anonymous) | Polish text traditional (possibly Piotr Skarga, d. 1612); English by Edith M. G. Reed (d. 1933) | Polish original centuries old; Reed's English 1920 | Primary Education, Dec 1920, p.641, Reed's own first printing, archived; melody and English text both from it |