in "deck the halls", where you say "don we now our gay apparel" (as in "now we put on our brightly colored clothes") i thought it was "dawn we now our day of Harold". My family wasnt very religious, and i figured that another name for christmas was St. Harold's Day.

Bethan

I went to church every Sunday my whole life because my dad was a preacher but still it did not occur to me until I was in 5th grade that there was no hymn called "Standing on the Last" - that was just what our music leader would say when he introduced each hymn so everyone would rise on the last verse.

summer

We used to sing a hymn at Easter with the line, "up from the grave he arose." When I was little, I thought they were singing, "Up from the gravy he rose."

Kathy

I used to believe that in the carol we three kings, that they were from places called Orry and tar.

"we three kings from orry and tar"

vandal

While in church, I would constently hear the words "glory, glory to god in the highest." Thought I would hear it as "glory, glory to god in the high lands." since then I still get the metal image of god in "high land" or what I thought was yodaling on a mountain.

Luna

My little sister misunderstood the word of kid's hymn "Joshua and the Battle of Jericho" in Sunday School class. She sang "Joshua took the cherry from the Cherry Coke".

SBS in NJ

When I was little, there was a song called "Lord, Teach Us To Pray". I couldn't read and always thought the words were "with our pots and pans all busy in our private little homes". Years later when I could read, I realized the words were "with our hearts and hands all heavy in our private little wars".

no name in Indiana

When I was about 6, I never really understood the song 'who built the ark'. It wasn't till I got older that I realised the words weren't "who built the ark, no one, no one, who built the ark, mother hubard built the ark" Don't ask me where she came from?!! Oh and I thought the words to 'My Girl' was actually 'Maggots'?!!!

vicarous

I still remember singing "Oh, Santa" -- instead of "Hosanna". Was I embarassed when my Grandmother corrected me!

DLN

I could read at an early age and during Christmas we were singing "It came upon the Midnight Clear". For the longest time I thought the line went "the world in SOLOMON stillness lays" and for some reason Kins Solomon had something to do with the Nativity. My mom realized what I was singing and stifling a giggle informed me the "n" was silent!

Nikki

I used to believe that in the song "Deck The Halls With Boughs Of Holly", "deck" was short for "decorate". It didn't confuse the meaning of that line too much. I'd say back then I was doing well to come that close to getting the meaning of the first line, considering how then I would have been totally clueless about the meaning of other lines, like "Don we now our gay apparrel". And I did wonder what the heck a troll was doing in a Christmas song, the only kind of troll I knew of at the time being a scary creature that lived under a bridge. Although the first line seemed clear, I must have had a somewhat confused time later learning the general meaning of "deck", though.

Natalie

In our religion, our music is played from a CD, but when I was little I never knew this. I thought there was an old lady in the roof with a piano.

Anon

When I was a Girl Guide, we would start every meeting by singing a song that included the line 'God is nigh'. For about two years, I was sure I was singing 'God is nice' until one of the leaders kindly corrected me. And then laughed.

Anon

i used to believe that the song "we 3 kings" went like this:
we 3 kings of orient are
1 in a taxi 1 in a car
1 on a scooter blowing his hooter
smoking a big cigar

kitten

the dance settee seems to be very popular... I'm another one who thought of Jesus dancing on a sofa....

Anon

When I was little my sister used to play the guitar and sing what I thought was 'God is twirling in my heart' ('God is dwelling in my heart' is the correct lyric).... I would imagine God in a long robe twirling around in my chest.

rachel g