structural:reformatting, linguistic:translation
Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Some carols familiar in English are translations of German Christmas songs (Weihnachtslieder). Pastoral Weihnachtslieder are sometimes called Hirtenlieder ("shepherd songs"). Martin Luther wrote the carol " Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her ", which can be acted as a play of the Christmas story. He also wrote " Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ " and " Christum wir sollen loben schon ". The carol " Vom Himmel hoch, o Engel, kommt " was written by Friedrich Spee in 1622 to an older melody, a lullaby singing "of Jesus and Mary", and for peace.

Two well-known later examples are " O Tannenbaum " (O Christmas tree), from a German folksong arranged by Ernst Anschütz and "Stille Nacht" (" Silent Night ") by the Austrians Franz Xaver Gruber and Joseph Mohr. The carol most familiar in German besides those two is probably the 19th-century " O du fröhliche ".

Other popular and widely sung Christmas carols are "Herbei, o ihr Gläub’gen", which is a German version of "Adeste fideles" (English: " O Come, All Ye Faithful "), Alle Jahre wieder ("Every year again"), Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (lit: "A rose has sprung up"), " Leise rieselt der Schnee " "(Silently the snow is falling)", " Tochter Zion, freue dich " (Daughter Zion, rejoice) and " Es ist für uns eine Zeit angekommen " ("Unto us a time has come").

" Lasst uns froh und munter sein " ("Let us be happy and cheerful"), " Kling, Glöckchen ", ("Ring, Little Bell"), " Ihr Kinderlein, kommet " ("Oh, come, little children") and " Schneeflöckchen, Weißröckchen " (lit.: "tiny snowflake, white, tiny skirt") are popular German songs introduced in Kindergarten and primary school. Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann wrote a scientific book on German Christmas carols which is also a song book.