Primary songs

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These are songs traditionally sung and learned by children in Primary. Primary songs are usually the same thing as children's songs, in the LDS church. All primary songs are children's songs, but not all children's songs are primary songs.

Primary songs are generally not sung by the congregation in sacrament meeting, unless they are included in the current hymnal (such as Teach Me to Walk in the Light, and I Am a Child of God). Others are, however, sometimes used for musical numbers in sacrament meeting.

There has been a definite refinement in the choice of songs in the more recent LDS children's songbooks. Many of the older primary songs do not seem to be suitable for church use today, however much they arguably[1] may be suited to other occasions (e.g. Jolly Old Saint Nicholas).

Footnotes

  1. This refers to such as the example given of Jolly Old Saint Nicholas: many believe Santa Claus is a bad thing, due to the perceived tendency of people letting him taking preeminence over Christ during Christmas. Those who made certain songbooks, however, must not have realized these views.