Christmas has its cradle

Christmas has its cradle. Rae E. Whitney* (1927- ). Written ca. 1980. As Donald C. Brown points out in the Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal [1991] (p.108), for Whitney the link between Christmas and Easter was a favourite theme. In this hymn it is made clear by the way in which each of the four verses begins ‘Christmas has its cradle’, and the way in which each ends with a part of the Passiontide and Easter narrative: ‘Christmas has its cradle and Easter has its cross’/ ‘... and in the Easter tomb’/ ‘... and to his Easter joy’/ ‘...and Easter has its Lord’. In the Baptist Hymnal (Nashville, Tennessee, 1991) it is prefaced by ‘She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger – Luke 2: 7...