Abbie Burt Betinis composes new Christmas carols

Editor's note: Thanks to MPR Classical's John Birge for this post.

"This song more or less is

The way one expresses

The spirit that blesses

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Our Jesus today."

The Reverend Bates Burt wrote those words for "Let Christmas Be Merry," a carol he composed for Christmas 1933. For the 2011 holiday, Burt's great-granddaughter, Abbie Burt Betinis, is still writing songs that express "the spirit that blesses" at Christmas.

Betinis carries on a family tradition begun in 1922 by her great-grandfather Bates Burt, and continued by Betinis's great-uncle, Alfred Burt. Some of Alfred Burt's carols, such as "Caroling, Caroling" and "The Star Carol" have become a part of the standard Christmas repertoire.

In the first video the "MPR Carolers" sing Betinis' latest, "Come in, Come in, Come in Ye" -- a fun and complex canon. In the second video the group sings last year's carol -- "Carol of the Snow" -- based on a poem by Longfellow called "Snow-Flakes."