Christmas Spirit Week: Day Two

It's Christmas Spirit Week here at Debbie's Book Bag! this week. I will be doing some posts that have a Christmas theme, as well as doing some reviews of Holiday themed books. I know you don't all celebrate Christmas but there will be things for you as well.

This evenings Christmas theme is: Christmas Carols!

Do you ever listen to them? How did we get started caroling? Where do some of the songs originate?

I love Christmas Carols and Christmas music. Our church goes caroling about every year and we always enjoy it. It's something fun and Christmasy to do that doesn't cost a lot of money and brings a lot of joy to a lot of people. Especially if you carol at a nursing home or where people don't have the opportunity to get out for the holidays. But how did caroling originate?

There are several did accounts as to how caroling really got started. One account says that caroling began as a way for drunken men and boys to go out and have fun. They would go from house to house and sing folk songs and drinking songs as a way to have a good time. But, it is unlikely that Christmas Caroling as we know it, began in this manner.

Some say that it originated with a small child named Carol Poles. Carol went missing in London during the time that famed serial killer, Jack the Ripper terrorized London's streets. The search parties would go from door to door singing Christmas Carols in order to cause less fear from the residents as they searched for the child. This one has been proven to be a myth. Charles Dicken's wrote, A Christmas Carol, 50 years before the story of Carol Poles and in it he describes people going door to door singing Christmas Carols.

The most probable and believable account of how Christmas Caroling began happened in England in the 1840's. After Prince Albert married Queen Victoria the English peasants wanted to impress the new royal family and began singing Christmas Carols to them frequently. Carols were a favorite of the German Prince and it became a tradition at that point. The American tradition of caroling was a little different in the beginning. Carolers were often invited into the homes of those they caroled for, for food and drink (cookies and hot chocolate).

Though it is unclear how the tradition began for certain... we have certainly embraced it. I love carols...

What's my favorite Christmas Carol you ask? That's an easy one...

What Child is This? (my favorite version is by opera singer, Andrea Boccelli and Mary J. Blige).

Check it out:



What's your favorite Christmas Carol... we want to know?