"O come, O come, Emmanuel" (Latin: "Veni, veni, Emmanuel") The text was originally written in Latin. It is a metrical paraphrase of the O Antiphons, a series of plainchant antiphons attached to the Magnificat at Vespers over the final days before Christmas. The hymn has its origins over 1,200 years ago in monastic life in the 8th or 9th century.

"Rise Up, Shepherd and Follow" The text of this spiritual was first published in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, vol. 47, January 1891, in the middle of a fictional story called “Christmas Gifts” by Ruth McEnery Stuart (1852–1917).  I grew up listening to Harrry Belafonte's version entitled "A Star in the East."

"Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella" (French: “Un flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle”)  What we know today as the melody is almost certainly based on a drinking song from 1666. The original text by Émile Blémont first appeared with this melody in 1901 in a collection of carols transcribed and harmonized by Julien Tiersot. Two shepherdesses, Jeannette and Isabella, excited at finding the baby in the stable, are urged to bring torches. Torches remain a Christmas tradition in Provence, where children dress up as shepherds and milkmaids, carrying torches and candles to Midnight Mass while singing this carol.

"Silent Night" (German: “Stille Nacht”) was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, a village in the Austrian Empire in present-day Austria. A young Catholic priest, Father Joseph Mohr, in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, had written the poem "Stille Nacht" in 1816.  The melody was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber on Christmas Eve 1818 for that night's mass.  The Silent Night Cathedral stands on the site where the song was first performed.

"The First Noel" "The First Nowell" is of Cornish origin. Nowell is an Early Modern English synonym of "Christmas" from French Noël "the Christmas season", ultimately from Latin natalis [dies] "[day] of birth".  This a cappella arrangement was originally performed by the Toluca Lake Men's Choir in 2017.