The Huron Carol is often called Canada's oldest Christmas song.
The hymn was probably written around 1642 by Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons. Its original Wendat title was “Jesous Ahatonhia,” meaning “Jesus, he is born.” Brébeuf adapted the Nativity story for Wendat listeners, using local imagery such as a lodge, hunters and animal pelts.
The familiar English version is not the original text. Jesse Edgar Middleton wrote those English lyrics in 1926, replacing or reshaping some of the original cultural imagery. The melody itself is based on the French folk song “Une Jeune Pucelle.”
A common mix-up is treating “oldest” as meaning the oldest Christmas music ever written in Canada. The phrase generally refers to the country’s oldest known Christmas song or hymn tradition; its exact 1642 date is usually given cautiously as “probably.”