O Little Town of Bethlehem

This page includes a lyric video, a brief history, sheet music, and other resources for the Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Enjoy!

Enjoy this You Tube video with lyrics of “O Little Town of Bethlehem”:

History of “O Little Town of Bethlehem”:

Phillips Brooks came from a long line of Puritans tracing back to John Cotton (1585-1652), a highly regarded New England minister. Brooks’ parents, like many Puritans, became associated with the Episcopal Church in America and raised their children in this denomination. Three of Brooks’ five brothers, like him, went on to be ordained as ministers in the Episcopal Church.

Brooks graduated from Harvard University in 1855, when he was just 20 years old and went on to study for the ministry at Virginia Theological Seminary. In 1861, he was appointed to a position at the Church of the Holy Trinity. He remained there until 1869, providing moral strength to his congregation throughout the American Civil War and its aftermath.  Brooks upheld the cause of the North and passionately opposed slavery.

When the Civil War came to an end, Brooks had the opportunity to travel to the Holy Land. Likely, he was in need of a retreat from war-torn America. In a letter to his father, Brooks tells how on Christmas Eve, he traveled on horseback from Jerusalem to Bethlehem.He rode to the field outside Bethlehem in which the angelic announcement to the shepherds is said to have taken place, and he witnessed shepherds still “keeping watch over their flocks.” That evening, he attended a five-hour (10 p.m. to 3 a.m.) service at the Church of the Nativity.

By all accounts, it was this Christmas Eve experience that began to stir the now famous song “O Little Town of Bethlehem” in Brooks’ heart. However, three years passed before the hymn was finally written down for the Christmas service of the Sunday schools at his church (1868). Brooks asked Lewis Redner, his church organist and superintendent of Sunday school to set it to music. Redner gave the following account of his composition:

“As Christmas of 1868 approached, Mr. Brooks told me that he had written a simple little carol for the Christmas Sunday-school service, and he asked me to write the tune to it. The simple music was written in great haste and under great pressure. We were to practice it on the following Sunday. Mr. Brooks came to me on Friday, and said, ‘Redner, have you ground out that music yet to “O Little Town of Bethlehem”?’ I replied, ‘No,’ but that he should have it by Sunday. On the Saturday night previous my brain was all confused about the tune. I thought more about my Sunday-school lesson than I did about the music. But I was roused from sleep late in the night hearing an angel-strain whispering in my ear, and seizing a piece of music paper I jotted down the treble of the tune as we now have it, and on Sunday morning before going to church I filled in the harmony. Neither Mr. Brooks nor I ever thought the carol or the music to it would live beyond that Christmas of 1868.”

For more intriguing history on “O Little Town of Bethlehem” (and 19 other classic Christmas songs), you can purchase our Christmas Songs eBook (only $2.99; use code “celebrate20” for 20% off).

You can also download our free, complimentary Sheet Music for “O Little Town of Bethlehem”

For additional resources (like original sheet music), visit Hymns and Carols of Christmas or Net Hymnal.

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