I remember a line from a song at primary school that went… “Snowy flakes are falling softly, covering all the world in white…” I don’t know how it continues, but I do know that every time it starts to snow, those words start singing to me. What’s more, they are often accompanied by the taste of Dutch Shortcake. Proustian? Maybe. Maybe not.
Both the words and the biscuits came to me today – the latter in a blue and silver packet – when I looked out of the window to see a sky positively laden with snow. They are with me now, dancing around me like the snow flakes the song describes, and leaving me in no doubt that wherever I was when I first experienced their delights, must have been good, comforting places.
Perhaps that is why I have always loved snow so much.
Steven Patterson
December 25, 2012 at 3:34 am
I sang and loved that song at primary school too and I think of it every Christmas! Here is the full lyric:
Snowly flakes are falling softly
Clothing all the world in white
High above the stars are shining
Twinkling through the wintry night
Was it just like this, we wonder,
Starry bright and crisp and cold
On that Christmas night of old?
Angels spread their wondrous story:
Jesus Christ is born today
“Peace on earth,” they sang, “and glory
Be to God on High alway”
So we sing the sweetest carols
Telling how the King of love
Came to save from heaven above
There is a recording of it by boy treble Eamonn Mulhall, although I’m pretty sure the melody he sings is far more complicated than the one I remember!
Tamsin
December 25, 2012 at 9:54 am
Hi Steven
I am now enlightened! And glad to meet a fellow snowy flakes lover. A happy Christmas to you.
Tamsin
Andrew
December 30, 2016 at 9:07 pm
Crikey. I remember this from the early 1060s
lynnette
September 5, 2014 at 10:43 pm
nearly 50 years since I sang this song. y belated aunt and I loved this song x
Sherri
August 25, 2015 at 11:55 pm
I remember it’s as snowy flakes were softly falling clothing all the world in white, not falling softly but that could just be me
Christine Walker
January 9, 2017 at 6:36 pm
I remember this from junior school in the 1960’s. We learned it from a schools radio programme called Time and Tune. I love this song, it brings back such happy childhood memories. I couldn’t believe my good fortune when I discovered this posting on here. Thank you so very much.
Patricia camp
December 17, 2017 at 2:30 pm
I remember this song. My mum wanted me to sing it to the family and bribed me by paying me. Haha.
Great memories of the 60’s. 🙏🙏🙏
Julie
May 24, 2013 at 2:28 pm
OMG how strange this song came into my head at the coffe bar at work loved it every time we sang it at school it snowed so happy memories
Michele
November 21, 2013 at 4:40 pm
I sang that song in my church choir when I was about 10 years old and I still remember the opening line and melody today, more than 40 years later!!! Thank you so much for publishing the full lyrics!
Tamsin
November 21, 2013 at 9:12 pm
Hi Michele
I guess there must be something about that song, because it has always stuck with me too. It can hold its own with the best of children’s Christmas chorals. I never hear it, but when I think about it, I am immediately transported back to a cold assembly hall with garish orange 1970s curtains.
Thanks for your comment. Thank you for reading:)
Tamsin
Mary
December 5, 2013 at 1:02 pm
I am invited to a party where we have to bring a poem, song or story from childhood. I was singing Snowy Flakes to myself this morning. I sang it in a junior church choir almost 50 years ago. I remember almost all the words but googled it to check on a few and found your blog. I still remember how we had to breath out on the “Ws” on world and white to project them. The song comes back to me everytime we have big fluffy flakes falling.
Colin Girvan
January 1, 2014 at 4:50 pm
I remember singing this primary school, The song came to me today.. it’s been 41 years since I last sung it. 1/1/2014 Happy new Year
Snowly flakes are falling softly
Clothing all the world in white
High above the stars are shining
Twinkling through the wint’ry night
Was it just like this, we wonder,
Starry bright and crisp and cold
On that Christmas night of old?
Angels spread their wondrous story:
Jesus Christ is born today
“Peace on earth,” they sang, “and glory
Be to God on High alway”
So we sing the sweetest carols
Telling how the King of love
Came to save from heaven above
Andie
November 22, 2014 at 4:09 pm
I wonder why this was only sung in the ’60s and ’70s. I used to sing this to my baby brother to lull him to sleep. I think about it every Christmas and wonder why it is no longer popular. I am going to print out the words and teach it to my children this Christmas. Thanks so much!
Sandra Hunt
December 8, 2014 at 7:54 pm
I sang this in around 1956 at my primary school in West Bromwich, England and on another website I read it was sung in Southern Australia about 1951.
Kate Green
November 26, 2014 at 8:26 am
I learnt this when I was in primary school in England. 50yrs have passed and it still is one of my most loved Christmas carols, although so few of us know it. I looked up the words to sing it for a Christmas party that my Dad and I are to perform at next week. Here is the copy of the words for you. Merry Christmas to all of the lovely people who still remember it :D
Snowly flakes are falling softly
Covering all the world in white
High above the stars are shining
Twinkling through the wint’ry night
Was it just like this, we wonder,
Starry bright and crisp and cold
On that Christmas night of old?
Angels spread their wondrous story:
Jesus Christ is born today
“Peace on earth,” they sang, “and glory
Be to God on High alway”
So we sing the sweetest carols
Telling how the King of love
Came to earth from heaven above.
Sandra Hunt
December 8, 2014 at 7:56 pm
We definitely sang clothing, not covering.
Jeanette Torr
November 19, 2016 at 3:35 pm
We sang clothing too! I haven’t heard this song since I was in infants school in the 70s!
Fiona Mitchell
January 16, 2015 at 7:15 pm
Remember this from primary school but no one else I know seem to know it – it always pops into my head when it starts to snow as well . Glad I’m not going mad and it really does exist and other people love it like I do xxxx
Anne Stegmann
December 9, 2014 at 9:51 pm
We sang this song, too, in grade school-in the 1950’s, in St. Louis, Missouri, in mid-America. Must be the German Lutheran background. I’m using the first verse in my cards this season. Merry Christmas to you all!
John Bisset
January 9, 2015 at 11:07 am
When I was three and a half years old in 1950 I went with my aunt Betty to her choir practice just before Christmas at her local church in Park Hall Clydebank Glasgow. They sang this and I have never forgotten it; it was actually snowing and we were out so long my father was sent out like good King Wenceslas to find us.
Wally
January 13, 2015 at 9:17 pm
I only remembered the first line but I always recalled the melody. I sang this in my early school days probably in grade 4 in Kelowna B.C. in Canada. The tune came to my mind today after 60 yrs. and triggered nostalgia and sentimentality over those lost day. A part of the later years of life no doubt.
L Bentley
April 14, 2015 at 1:48 pm
I too remember this from 50 years ago only remember the first line been looking for it for years found it now.
Jeanette Torr
December 8, 2015 at 1:00 pm
We only ever sang this in infants school and I haven’t heard it since. I’ve downloaded a version from Spotify. Memories!
Edwin
December 22, 2015 at 10:38 pm
I have been searching for this lyric for over 25 years. My late sister brought this beautiful carol into our home sometime in the early sixties. The melody came to me while reading the words just now.
Thank you.
gerry
November 22, 2017 at 6:02 pm
We sang it in grade school also.
Snowy flakes are falling softly
covering all the world in white
Up above the stars are shining
giving off a celestial light
that’s all I got on lyrics, I still remember the melody.
best song we ever had to sing
Merry Christmas
Tamsin
November 27, 2017 at 9:40 am
Hi Gerry, I remember the melody too. Wonder if anyone still sings it…
Bob Richardson
November 30, 2017 at 11:59 am
Hi Tamasin, snowing in Hull E.Yorks this morning. Queuing for a coffee in M&S, all of a sudden I started singing the snowy song, the girls behind the counter had never heard it, my wife said she had never heard it. So went on line great to find full lyrics and comments. I remember it from the 50s
Tamsin
November 30, 2017 at 12:24 pm
Is it really snowing in Hull? How nice. No snow in Berlin yet, but I am waiting patiently for those flakes to softly fall. Truly does seem to be a song lost in time. Time to revive it;)
Bob Richardson
November 30, 2017 at 12:58 pm
Hi Tamsin,
The east coast is getting an Artic Blast at the moment, My grandson and his girlfriend were in Berlin last week, brought photos home of the>Brandensburg< gate. Hope you get snow for Christmas, so do we.
Seasons greetings
Bob
Lorraine casey
November 27, 2017 at 9:31 am
I have always loved this song but only knew some of the lyrics. It takes me right back to the magical feeling of Christmas when I was a child.
Lorraine
Tamsin
November 27, 2017 at 9:39 am
Hi Lorraine
So many people seem to have fond memories of this song. A gem obscured by time.
Thanks for getting in touch.
Tamsin
Norma Grant
November 27, 2018 at 2:03 pm
Remember this song from primary school in Edinburgh Scotland around 1950 and loved it and it has stuck with me ever since. Have also wondered why we don’t hear more of it. Am going to sing it this season at seniors homes with my seniors choir and can guarantee lots of snowy flakes outside here in Ottawa, Canada.
Best of the season.