History of Christmas Carols

Christmas is a perfect festive season to enjoy with family and friends. It is the time of the year, when people attend parties, feasts and family reunions. The family comes together to clean and decorate home with twigs of holly, mistletoe with wreaths and Christmas lights. Christmas tree is brought home and decorated with ornaments and tinsel. People are eager to welcome the festival. The entire atmosphere is filled with hope, happiness and festive fervor. Christmas music in form of songs and carols is an integral part of Christmas celebration. The churches as well as home have sound of soothing music during the festival of Christmas.

Christmas music is a big section in music and includes various types of music. One starts hearing the Christmas music days before the actual holiday. Music helps in creating the right tempo for the festival. Traditionally, music is an inseparable part of Christmas. In earlier times, one observes that the music was in form of hymns and chants in Latin language. These were used in churches and other worship places. Carols were written in vernacular language in the thirteenth century. Carol is a song on religious topic which has festive style. The singing of carols emerged in Italy and from they passed on to other countries like France, Germany and England.

Slowly, the English started accepting the tradition of carols. The best compositions and poets in English have made contribution to Christmas carols. Today, we cannot think of Christmas without carols. Protestants had disapproved the tradition of carol singing in the beginning. Carol singing was associated with Roman Catholics. In the year 1660, the English royal family gave full support to the tradition of Carols and this is how it became a part of the English society. The churches had carol singers on Christmas Eve. The medieval period was the time when carols became quite popular and entered common man's life.

In seventeenth century, we see that many people used to sing carols and collect alms. This tradition was predominant for many years in Britain. The musicians' would sing carols on the streets a couple of weeks before Christmas. The tradition still continues in some parts of England even today. The carols composed in the nineteenth century are recorded and therefore popular among the masses. The popular carols like "The Holly and the Ivy", "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen" and so on. Some Christmas carols are traditional folk songs that do not have a lot of religious sentiments.

During the Christmas season, new carols are composed and sung in the church during the service. Today, Christmas music is commercialized and forty percent revenue of music industry in US comes from this genre of music played in the last quarter of the year. The popular Christmas carols come from movies, music albums, etc. related to Christmas. This is a new trend but quite popular in area of Christmas music.