O Little Town of Bethlehem

O Little Town of Bethlehem

From Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols by America Media

December 21, 2025 · 58 min

About this episode

The episode explores the origins and contemporary relevance of the carol 'O Little Town of Bethlehem' through the insights of guest Stephanie Saldaña.

“O Little Town of Bethlehem” has shaped how millions of English speakers imagine the Palestinian town where Jesus was born: a small place, still and peaceful, resting under the stars. The wars and struggles of recent decades invite us to question whether that image is true. And yet, “Bethlehem is still a very little town,” says Stephanie Saldaña, a writer and mother raising her family in this religiously and culturally diverse place. “It is a small place where everybody knows each other.” Still more striking is how closely the need that gave rise to the carol echoes the present moment. In 1865, after the Civil War devastated the United States, Philadelphia rector Phillips Brooks was broken by grief—Lincoln’s assassination and the loss of his younger brother to cholera while serving in the Union Army. Seeking solace, Brooks traveled to Bethlehem. What he found there—peace, stillness, God present in a small community—he later put into words and set to music as a carol for children who had lost fathers to war. [Is there a carol you'd love to hear on “Hark!”? Let us know in our listener survey.] Now, more than 150 years later, that same carol reaches those in the Holy Land today…

People in this episode

Host: Maggi Van Dorn

Guest: Stephanie Saldaña

Topics covered

  • Christmas carols
  • Bethlehem
  • religious diversity
  • historical context
  • hope
  • community

Keywords

  • O Little Town of Bethlehem
  • Christmas carol
  • Stephanie Saldaña
  • Phillips Brooks
  • Bethlehem
  • hope
  • community
  • Civil War
  • religious diversity

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Bethlehem, United States

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