The 12 Days of Christmas Songs: 6. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid." Luke 2:8-9


This carol was written by Edmund Sears of Wayland, Massachusetts, who wrote the  five-stanza poem in 1849. Sears is said to have writ­ten these words at the re­quest of his friend, W. P. Lunt, a min­is­ter in Quin­cy, Mass­a­chu­setts. The hymn was first sung at the 1849 Sun­day School Christ­mas cel­e­bra­tion. A year later, in1850, composer Richard Storrs Willis wrote the melody.