Castanea being cooked with flame

People have been circulating lists of obfuscated carol titles around the holidays for as long as I can recall. I don't know how this started but I always enjoy deciphering them. Here are a few lists I found on the web.




1. Move hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their belief

2. Listen, the celestial messengers produce harmonious sounds.

3. Nocturnal time span of unbroken quietness.

4. An emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good given to the terrestrial sphere.

5. Embellish the interior passageways.

6. Exalted heavenly beings to whom harkened.

7. Twelve o'clock on a clement night witnessed its arrival.

8. The Christmas preceding all others.

9. Small municipality in Judea southeast of Jerusalem.

10. Diminutive masculine master of skin-covered percussionistic cylinders.

11. Omnipotent supreme being who elicits respite to ecstatic distinguished males.

12. Tranquillity upon the terrestrial sphere.

13. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals.

14. Expectation of arrival to populated area by mythical, masculine perennial gift giver.

15. Natal celebration devoid of color, rather albino, as a hallucinatory phenomenon for me.

16. In awe of the nocturnal time span characterized by religiosity.

17. Geographic state of fantasy during the season of mother nature's dormancy.

18. The first person nominative plural of triumvirate of far eastern heads of state.

19. Tintinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted, metallic, resonant cups.

20. In a distant location the existence of an improvised unit of newborn children's slumber furniture.

21. Proceed forth declaring upon a specific geological alpine formation.

22. Jovial Yuletide desired for the second person singular or plural by us.


Credit for this list and aswers can be found here.


From the folks at PBS Car Talk is another list with many of the same songs but different obfuscation.



1. Approach Everyone Who Is Steadfast

2. Ecstasy Toward The Orb

3. Hush, The Foretelling Spirits Harmonize

4. Hey, Minuscule Urban Area Southwest Of Jerusalem

5. Quiescent Nocturnal Period

6. The Autocratic Troika Originating Near the Accent of Apollo

7. The Primary Carol

8. During the Time Ovine Caretakers Supervised Their Charges Past Twilight

9. Celestial Messengers From Splendid Empires

10. The Thing Manifest Itself at the Onset of a Transparent Day

11. The Tatterdemalion Ebony Atmosphere

12. What Offspring Abides Thus?

13. Removed in a Bovine Feeding Trough

14. Creator Cool It Ya Kooky Cats

15. Seraphim We Aurally Detect in the Stratosphere

16. The Slight Percussionist Lad

17. The Event Occurred At One Minute After 11:59 PM—Visibility Unlimited

18. During the Dark Hours When Herdsman Attended Their Charges

19. A Meteorological Melody Is Manifest

20. Are You Experiencing Parallel Auditory Input?



You can find the answers here.


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