A Christmas hymn that is not as common as some is "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." The words are from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (who was born on the same day of the year as I was, just some 162 years before I was).

Longfellow wrote it during the Civil War, it was originally called "Christmas Bells." There are two stanzas in the original poem that is omitted from the carol:

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

The story goes, he wrote this after hearing that his son - fighting for the Union army - had been wounded. (He was still in mourning for his wife, as well). In the modern version of the carol, those verses are removed.

I like the carol; it, like few, recognizes the fact that some may have doubts or sadnesses during this season:

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

How many times, since September 2001, have I said some variant of that to myself?

But the poet answers his own question:

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

Would that that would come sooner rather than later.

The Christmas carol version of it is here (N.B.: Midi file of music plays automatically)