The breathless, sweet expectancy of Silent Night, the reverent organ chords of O, Little Town of Bethlehem, the triumphant horns and bells of The First Noel, and the progression of O Tannenbaum from toy-shop quaintness to a magnificent finale, exemplify the vibrant symphonic setting in which this beloved music is presented. All of the carols respond warmly to Mr. Dragon's expert and sympathetic treatment, and the program which results is an unusually fresh and ardent testament to one of the world's most cherished traditions.

While most of the carols resemble one another in their mood of glad rejoicing, they differ greatly as to their origin and inspiration. Some, such as Deck the Halls, seem to be of pagan derivation. And Mendelssohn originally wrote the music of what is now Hark! the Herald Angels Sing in honor of Johann Gutenberg and the invention of printing. But whatever its lineage, from the most ancient Celtic shepherd's song to the more recent Christmas hymns of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, each carol has contributed to the total significance and splendor of Christendom's great day.

"I have often thought," Joseph Addison wrote in the Spectator, back in the seventeenth century, "it happens very well that Christmas should fallout in the middle of Winter." And a century later, Sir Walter Scott added, "A Christmas gambol oft could cheer/The poor man's heart through half the year." In the days when bitter weather and widespread hunger were real problems, Christmas cheer and Christmas carols sparked a glow in the hearts of men that warmed them through the long grey winter months. We of the twentieth century have our own, though different, problems and we need the comfort and the hope, the faith and the promise of the Christmas carols as urgently as our long-ago forebears did.
Album liner notes