| STARTING | Disturbing carol - the content's bitter |
| DICKENS | Charles -; novelist who wrote A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and The Cricket on the Hearth (7) |
| HYDE | Which Australian composer wrote Christmas Card Fantasy (1955) on the carol The Holly and the Ivy? (4) |
| FIVE | According to the carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas (1909), how many gold rings were sent to the true love? (4) |
| IVY | Christmas carol: "The Holly and the ___" |
| HOLLY | Carol, "The ... and the Ivy" |
| COVENTRY | A 16th-century British Christmas carol, The _ Carol (8) |
| TURTLEDOVE | Old World bird with brown plumage and speckled wings associated with the carol The Twelve Days of Christmas (10) |
| GOD | According to the carol, the blessed birth left Him and sinners reconciled |
| CALLOW | Simon, actor who voices Ebenezer Scrooge in the 2001 film Christmas Carol: The Movie (6) |
| GITCHIMANITOU | Great Spirit in "The Huron Carol", the oldest Christmas tune of Canada: 2 wds. |
| LORD | Aristocrat who was a-leaping in the carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (4) |
| BASKIN | Surname of Carol, the CEO of Big Cat Rescue who featured in the 2020 Netflix true crime documentary series Tiger King (6) |
| NOEL | Christmas carol: "The First ___" |
| BURNETT | Carol ......., the doyenne of American comedians (7) |
| FIRST | Christmas carol, The ... Noel |
| OF | "Carol - the Bells" |
| BRADY | Sitcom about a blended family with parents Mike and Carol, The ___ Bunch |
| ARSENALS | The contents of these magazines can be the cause of disturbing reports (8) |
| FREIGHT | Quarrel about the contents - contents of the hold (7) |
