"I Will Light Candles This Christmas" is a poem by Howard Thurman,[1][2] who was a prominent African American author, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader.
The poem appeared in a broadside of the same name around 1950.
[3] It was printed in Thurman's 1953 book, Meditations of the Heart, and again in his 1973 meditations booklet, The Mood of Christmas.
[1] The verse has been set to music by British composer and songwriter Adrian Payne, both as a song and as a choral (SATB) piece.
An arrangement for school choirs, that can be performed in one or two parts with piano accompaniment, was first performed in December 2010.