Glory to God in highest heaven, Who unto man His Son hath given; While angels sing with tender mirth, A glad new year to all the earth.

The stanza is a doxological greeting that fuses the Christmas angelic hymn (“Glory to God in the highest”) with a New Year’s benediction. It frames the turning of the year not as a merely secular milestone but as an occasion to rehearse the central Christian claim of divine gift—God giving the Son “unto man.” The “tender mirth” of angels suggests joy tempered by reverence, and the wish of “a glad new year to all the earth” universalizes the blessing beyond a single community. In effect, the verse treats the Incarnation as the ground of hope for the year ahead, linking liturgical praise to everyday calendrical life.