Are you looking for Christmas carols to sing this year? I’ve got a great list for you!

Singing Christmas carols with family and friends is a beautiful way to connect us to Christmas history, tradition, and true Christmas joy. Some of our most beloved Christmas carols were written decades ago, if not centuries ago, and contain unforgettable poetic lines centered around Christ’s birth. Singing Christmas carols encompasses some of the best parts of the holiday season.

For me personally, Christmas carols truly hold a special place in my heart. When I was a little girl, my parents were a part of a prison ministry through our church. For the first ten years of my life, families at our church got together and hosted a Christmas service every year at the Nashville Community Service Center, a minimum security prison.

My dad was one of the prison ministers who took turns leading the services on Sundays at the prison throughout the year. Because of that, we knew a lot of the prisoners who came to the annual Christmas party. Every year, families like ours looked forward to gathering with the prisoners to celebrate Christmas together.

I remember the abundance of Christmas presents, the long table of delicious homemade meals brought by loving church families, and the singing of the Christmas carols. Mostly, I remember the Christmas joy beaming on everyone’s faces. Christmas – and Christ – truly brought us together for such a moment as this. Over the years, I have continually looked back on these memories and deeply appreciate them. To this day, I know many Christmas carols by heart because of these unforgettable moments of ministry.

Singing Christmas carols is one of the greatest joys of the holiday season, albeit an old-fashioned one. But you can make Christmas caroling a part of your family Christmas traditions! Whether you sing Christmas carols at home, on the karaoke machine, at a nursing home, in your neighborhood, at church, or even at a prison like me, you can turn singing Christmas carols into an extra-special moment that will bring people together, touching hearts and lives with God’s love and the miracle of Christ’s birth.

If you’re looking for the top Christmas carols of all time to go Christmas Caroling or sing with family and friends, here are 34 popular and favorite tunes to enjoy this Christmas!

1. “O Little Town of Bethlehem” (1868)

2. “Silent Night” (1818)

3. “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” (1739)

4. “O Come, All Ye Faithful” (1843)

5. “Joy to the World” (1719)

6. “Away In a Manger“ (19th century)

7. “The First Noel“ (19th century)

8. “The Twelve Days of Christmas” (1780)

9. “Jingle Bells” (1857)

10. “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” (16th century)

11. “Deck the Halls” (16th century)

12. “Angels We Have Heard on High” (18th century)

13. “What Child is This?” (1865)

14. “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” (1851)

15. “Up On the Housetop” (1864)

16. “O Tannenbaum” (1824)

17. “Let It Snow” (1945)

18. “The Christmas Song” (1945)

19. “We Three Kings” (1857)

20. “Mary, Did You Know?” (1984)

21. “Amazing Grace” (1772)

22. “Carol of the Bells” (1916)

23. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman” (18th Century)

24. “Here We Come A-Wassailing” (19th century)

25. “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” (1863)

26. “O Christmas Tree” (1863)

27. “O Holy Night” (1847)

28. “Winter Wonderland” (1934)

29. “Angels, From the Realms of Glory” (1816)

30. “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” (1745)

31. “For Unto Us a Child is Born” from The Messiah by George Frederic Handel (1741)

32. “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” (1849)

33. “Little Drummer Boy”

34. “Do You Hear What I Hear?”

35. “Go Tell It On the Mountain”