Considered the carol of carols, O Holy Night is French in origin and dates back to 1843 when it started life as a poem by Placide Cappeau. Titled Cantique de Noel, the opening lines went like this. ‘Minuit Chretien, c’est l’heure solemnelle.’ Translated, it read ‘Midnight, Christian is the solemn hour.’ The English lyrics came later when the music critic and minister John Sullivan Dwight translated it into O Holy Night in 1855. It has since then become one of the most loved Christmas songs of all time around the world. O Holy Night is one of the oldest and most beautiful traditional Christmas songs of all time. Considered the carol of carols, it is French in origin and dates back to 1843 when it started life as a poem by Placide Cappeau.