4. Hannah Kerr, Christmas Eve in Bethlehem (Deluxe Edition) (Album)
Hannah Kerr released “Christmas Eve in Bethlehem” last year and has recently released a deluxe edition of that album that adds five new tracks, three of which are originals. One of these, “Forever Evergreen,” is a song about God’s unchanging nature and faithfulness:
Kingdom is coming
The mystery’s growing
Can you hear the angels sing
On Earth, let there be peace?
Here in the winter
Hope for a Savior
The Holy King of Kings
For all eternity
Forever evergreen
Kerr’s other new songs include the originals “My Kind of Christmas” and “Here To Stay, as well as the classics “Holly Jolly Christmas” and “The Christmas Song.”
5. REVERE, REVERE: Christmas (Album)
The first track from REVERE’s new album is “Joy to the World / Our God Saves,” a collaboration with Thrive Worship.
The song offers a meditative version of the Christmas classic and ends with the final words to the second, more modern song:
Our God saves, our God saves
There is hope in Your name
Our God saves, our God saves
There is hope in Your name
Mourning turns to songs of praise
Our God saves, our God saves
The album includes several other mash-ups, such as “Angels from the Realms of Glory / Emmanuel” and “Alpha and Omega / O Come Let us Adore Him.” It ends with “Glory Hallelujah (Spanish Christmas),” which includes both English and Spanish lyrics.
6. Zach Williams, Go Tell It on the Mountain (Single)
Zach Williams, who recently collaborated with Dolly Parton on the single “There Was Jesus,” has also released a Christmas single. “Go Tell It on the Mountain” is upbeat, joyful, and as the singer himself says, “a mix of soul…the camaraderie of my bandmates, and the message of hope that Jesus was born to save us all.”
7. Matthew West, The Hope of Christmas (Single)
Hope really seems to be the theme of this year’s Christmas songs. Matthew West’s single, “The Hope of Christmas” begins,
Take me back to eight years old
The little church on a dead-end road
With a candle flicker in one hand and dad’s hand in the other
Take me back to Silent Night
My heart was full and the world was right
Cause right now the world looks nothing like those innocent Decembers
These days peace on earth is hard to find
And I need you to remind me one more time
You’re still the hope of Christmas
You’re still the light when the world looks dark
You’re still the hope of Christmas
And You’re still the hope of my heart
West explained these lyrics, saying, “I find myself looking back at the Christmases of my youth, life seemed so much simpler then…I’ve always felt that my calling as a songwriter is to extract that hope even from situations where it seems all hope is lost. Writing this song helped me remember the reason why we can always have hope. Hope has a name. His name is Jesus, the Hope of Christmas.”
