This year, the first choral carol at my church's Christmas Eve service will be a sassy arrangement of "O Holy Night." The final anthem will be Peter Mayer's "Stables":




So may the lamps of stables glow
brightly that their light may go
for miles in the darkness, so
love will find its way there.

Another Peter Mayer song that's sometimes heard at my church at this time of year is Green:

...Death may raise its voice today
O but life will have its say
Speaking in lovers and in children
In poet's pens and philosopher's visions

... Grant to your heart its hopeful promise
Fashion a wreath for its blessing upon us.