Little Lights: History of “Away in the Manger”

“Away in the Manger” is one of the first Christmas hymns many of us learn. It is simple to sing, and the words are easy to remember. The first two verses of the song first appeared in print in a magazine in the United States in 1882 with the claim that the song was written by Martin Luther to sing to his children and that German mothers still sung it to their children. This claim was repeated as the song was printed in more publications in 1883-1885. References in these articles show that the...