History of Christmas Carols

Singing Carols dates back thousands of years in Europe, however these first songs were not Christmas carols at all, instead they were pagan songs sung at the Winter Solstice as people danced and celebrated around stone formations. The actual definition of carol means "to sing, especially in a lively, joyous manner;" These pagans used to have songs for all the seasons, however only the tradition of singing carols during the Winter Solstice has continued through the ages. Pagans celebrate the Winter Solstice on December 22nd because it is the shortest day of sunlight of the year and the days following will get longer.

Like most Christian traditions, they incorporated existing pagan traditions to Christian traditions and Christmas is no exception. Christians during this time simply switched the Winter Solstice for Christmas and pagan songs to Christmas songs. There were many early carols written and sung, however not many people liked them because they were all in Latin, a language not normally spoken in Europe and the people couldn't understand them. Right around the Middle Ages (1200's), people were losing interest in celebrating Christmas. Remember this was before Christmas trees, presents, and any of the other customs associated with Christmas besides carols, and the carols they couldn't even understand.

Something had to change or Christmas as we know it wouldn't exist. And that change would occur in Italy and would be lead by St. Francis of Assisi. 1223 began the start of his Nativity Plays, the troupe of people in the plays would sing out the story, the plays sometimes used Latin, but the majority of the play used a language that the people could understand and join in and bring with them all throughout Europe.

Most of these early Christmas carols are loosely based on the bible and are more entertaining then based on biblical references. These early carols would be sung in homes rather then places of worship. Also early carols were not generally written down, but rather passed from person to person, so the words would often change over time.

The Middle Ages was the first major obstacle for Christmas to overcome, the second would be the Puritans. In 1647, Puritans were in power over England and anything associated with Christianity, especially Christmas was put to an immediate stop. However, thanks in part to St. Francis of Assisi four hundred years prior, Christmas carols would survive this era as well. Christmas carols would be sung in private until the Victorian times.

When Christmas became popular again, people wanted Christmas carols to sing again and they have been popular ever since. During this new time is when carols were modernized and brought inside churches for the choirs to sing. Also the songs became based on biblical versus, rather then just entertaining. This is also about the time that singing carols in the street became popular and the start of Christmas carollers.