"I Am So Glad Each Christmas Eve"

Norwegian Inger M. Wexelsen (1832-1911), wrote the hymn “I Am So Glad Each Christmas Eve” in 1859. Wexelsen wrote a children’s Christmas songbook in which she published “I Am So Glad Each Christmas Eve” with more length. Its original title was to be “ The Child’s Christmas Carol.”

Peter Knudsen (1819-1863) set the Norwegian hymn “I Am So Glad Each Christmas Eve” to music in the same year that Wexelsen wrote the words in the songbook. Knudsen was an accomplished organist and violinist who worked in several Scandinavian cities.

“I Am So Glad Each Christmas Eve”

I am so glad each Christmas Eve,
The night of Jesus’ birth!
Then like the sun the Star shone forth,
And angels sang on earth.

The little Child in Bethlehem,
He was a King indeed!
For He came down from Heaven above
To help a world in need.

He dwells again in heaven’s realm,
The Son of God today;
And still He loves His little ones
And hears them when they pray.

I am so glad on Christmas Eve!
His praises then I sing;
He opens then for every child
The palace of the King.

When mother trims the Christmas tree
Which fills the room with light,
She tells me of the wondrous Star
That made the dark world bright.

She says the Star is shining still,
And never will grow dim;
And if it shines upon my way,
It leads me up to Him.

And so I love each Christmas Eve
And I love Jesus, too;
And that He loves me every day
I know so well is true.

In 1931, Peter A. Sveegen an English Department head at Augsburg College, St. Paul, MN, translated the hymn from Norwegian to English. He was well known as an expert on Shakespeare.

“I Am So Glad Each Christmas Eve”

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