Hard for me to believe there are only three Sundays till Christmas day which falls on a Sunday this year.
Between then now and I’ll be sharing some of my favorite Christmas song videos that we’ve filmed over the years.
I’ll start with one I’ve been listening to all week: Pap and Paul’s version of “We Three Kings of Orient Are.”
I like thinking of all the Christmas plays that have used the song to show the presence of the three wise men sharing gifts with the Messiah.
John Henry Hopkins Jr. was an ordained priest of the Episcopal Church. Hopkins preferred writing to preaching and worked for a New York newspaper as a writer and as a scribe for a church journal.
In 1857 while trying to decide what Epiphany gifts to buy for his nieces and nephews, Hopkins decided to write them a song. He chose the wise men as the subject for his gift. As Hopkins wrote the lyrics he tried to imagine what the wise men must have felt as they searched for the Christ Child.
After giving the song to his nieces and nephews, Hopkins published the song in his own song book, Carols, Hymns, and Songs. During the next century when churches began to add Christmas songs to their hymnals the song was among the first carols chosen ensuring “We Three Kings Of Orient Are” would become one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time.
My favorite version of Pap and and Paul doing the song is the produced track on their “Songs of Christmas” cd.
The words Hopkins wrote so many years ago accompanied by Paul and Pap’s harmony and Paul’s outstanding picking on the twelve string guitar give me chills every last time I hear it.
The music is simultaneously haunting and inspiring.
I hope you enjoyed the video. If you’d like to pick up a copy of the cd go here.
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Beautiful. I think Christmas should be much more simple than people have made it and hearing this made me sure of it. I just loved the harmony, but the guitar between verses was, for me, the best part. Thank you for posting this.
Just a short note. I think your posts and your YouTube videos are perfect. I love ow close your family is and how comfortable you are explaining recipes and educating all your viewers about your life in Appalachia. Thank you for all you do and Merry Christmas to you and those you love.
Love that song and they did a great job on it. I have really enjoyed my CD with the Christmas songs.
Tipper, I’ve listened to and sang that song countless times in my life, but this time I really heard it. And, that arrangement and cross picking on a 12-string…WOW!
Beautiful! Thank you
The harmony is amazing.
Once upon a time I was in possession of a early 1970s Yahama 12 string guitar. It was newish at the time. Harold had found it somewhere. He bought it and played it for a while but didn’t like it. I liked it but couldn’t pay him for it, so he gave it to me. He went back to a 6 string and we would play together. We sounded good, we thought, but not good enough for an audience. We played until I wore the strings out especially the unwound G. The wound strings held up good. The unwound strings were more of a problem. That G popped at the most inopportune moments.
At the time there was no Google and no Amazon. We could get sets for a 6 string but not the 12 so we used what we could get. An high E string for that notoriously weak G would work but was not intended to tune to an octave above the standard G. It would last longer if I loosened it after I played it. To mitigate the risk of warping the neck, I loosened all 12 of them after every session. That meant tuning it every time I played it. By ear. With the wrong gauge strings in half the positions. But it sound good when it was in tune. Or, should I say sounded good to me.
Alas I stored it in my wife’s sister’s basement and forgot to loosen the strings. I waited too long to retrieve it. Even though it was in its case, when I got back to it, it was covered in mold and the neck had pulled away from the body.
My wife’s nephew though he could put it back together so I gave it to him. I never saw or heard from it again. He didn’t mention it and I didn’t ask.
Beautiful song by 2 great talents. Thanks for sharing!
What great music, it doesn’t get any better! My family has done a funny Christmas Pajama photo for years now (way before it was popular even.) But last year our first grandbaby was born so we did a manger scene with baby True portraying baby Jesus! Granddeddy Kel, Mammal Lorie and Aunt Jessica were the 3 Kings, while momma and deddy played Mary & Joseph. Uncle Baylor was the Angle bc he’s 6’3’ and Darcy-dog & Michelle-dog played the sheep (wearing their sheep skin doggie coats.) We 3 kings carried gold, Frankincense and Myrrh and I was shocked at the price of the Frankincense, but I bought it anyway and gifted it to Uncle Baylor who burns essential oils. We’re enjoying this Sunday at my sons house, awaiting the arrival of our second grandbaby who will be released from the hospital any minute. We got to stay with her bubby with momma & deddy we’re in the hospital for sissy’s birth! She is a little Indian princesses with enough black hair to put in pigtails, never seen a baby with so much hair, and black hair, goin to her blue eyed, blonde hair parents… hahaha BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER!
I have always loved Two Part Harmony and in my humble opinion nobody does it better than Pap and Paul.
Tipper, it made my heart warm when at the end of the song your Pap was watching Paul and that proud father smile came over your dads face.
Such a beautiful song..done so well. Paul & Pap do such an amazing version.
I love all the Christmas songs your family sings. This is one of my favorites they do. Paul makes every song he plays a masterpiece. Honestly, he does. I had a pastor and wife who only gave their children three gifts at Christmas. I have always liked that idea.
Donna. : )
Beautifully done!
Absolutely beautiful! I love the old Christmas carols. Paul’s playing, just wonderful and with Pap having that smile at the end, that just made it even more special. Have a blessed Sunday everyone!!
Absolutely beautiful – so glad to hear this on this morning. THANK YOU!
It seems to me this carol has behind it a knowledge of how these three gifts had special significance in their own time and place that has gotten lost? Gold for a king’s crown, frankincense for Deity and myrrh for “gathering gloom”. Anybody else ever wonder what became of those gifts? I have but I reckon if it had been for us to know, we would have been told.
So glad for you all you got to have those sessions with Pap and now have them; a blessing then and continuing now.
Pap and Paul’s Christmas music is the only cd I listen to during the month of December.
Listening to Pap and Paul sing is a joy. I too love the old Christmas Carols. If I had to pick a favorite it would be Silent Night. My small traditional church will sing Christmas songs at all of the services during December. We Three Kings is one of the songs we sing. Like another member said a few days ago, I no longer enjoy the joy, decorations and the other things to do with Christmas since my wife’s death. I just want to go off by myself and hide until it is over, she enjoyed Christmas and the things associated with Christmas so much. The memories hurt. I know I shouldn’t be like this because when Christians think of the true meaning of Christmas and Easter we realize there we would have no hope in eternity without either one.
On a lighter note, we had a preacher that was raised in the mountains of Pickens county, SC joke and say the wise men came to the manager in a Honda and they came from a fire. Making fun of how we speak. in the Bible Christmas story it says in one accord and from afar.
Paul’s guitar playing is hauntingly lovely.
The wonderful writing of “We Three Kings” often goes unappreciated, and is worth the reading, sans music, touching on Jesus’s birth, life, death and resurrection – from cradle to cross to crown.
That was wonderful! The 12-string guitar gives it an eerie and full sound! I’ll think of Pap all day today!
Good morning Miss Tipper.
You are so right it’s hard to believe that Christmas is only 3 weeks from today!!
But this is one of my favorite times of the year for many & obvious reasons as we celebrate the birth of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ, as well as spending quality time with family and friends.
I love Christmas carols and this one here We Three Kings is at the top of my list, and wow Pap & Paul did an awesome job with it. I loved their vocals together but you’re right about Paul’s playing/picking of that guitar gave me those good ole spiritual chill bumps.
This was great we appreciate you sharing it and are looking forward to more of these songs/carols performed by your very talented family between now and Christmas.
Oh btw, thanks also for the history lesson as to where this awesome & now famous song originated. I Love History & The Old Ways Of Days Gone By!!!!
Beautiful song and I do enjoy hearing them sing. Thank you for sharing!
LOVED the video, but I always do. Right now I am reading the book of Luke…24 chapters and beginning December 1, it will be one chapter each day. Such glorious reading. I so look forward to each chapter leading to the Birth of our Savior. Thanks for all you do to teach and share.
Yes Tipper I agree, HAUNTING AND INSPIRING ♡♡ Merry Christmas!
one of my favorite carols. thank you for sharing.
Such talent! This touched my heart! I agree with you it gives a person chills! Thank you for sharing!