O Come, Little Children

The lyrics to this affectingly simple German Christmas carol were penned in 1798 by a Catholic priest, Christoph von Schmid. Though Schmid’s verse was set to various melodies in the 19th century, it is best-known in an 1835 setting that matched the poem to the tune of a children’s song from 1790 composed by the German court musician Johann A. P. Schulz.