The Nation's Favourite Christmas Carol

The nation has spoken and chosen its favourite Christmas Carol, and it is.....?

You'll just have to wait until Christmas Day when the results of Classic FM's poll will be announced in a special live programme - The Nation’s Favourite Carol - presented by Howard Goodall on from 12pm to 3pm .

Christmas carols - a fictional fantasy?

The Rt Rev Nick Baines, Bishop of Croydon, has branded Christmas carols as being nonsense - saying that adults should be embarrassed to sing them.

He also blasts nativity plays as "fictional fantasy" and claims that songs like Away In A Manger give children a "misleading" image of Jesus.

He says: "I find it bizarre when I see parents singing Away In A Manger as if it related to reality. I can understand little children being taken with the sort of baby of whom it can be said 'no crying he makes'. But how can adults sing this without embarrassment? If we sing nonsense, is it any surprise that children grow into adults and throw out the tearless baby Jesus with Father Christmas and other fantasy figures?"

Has he not heard of symbolism - something that is vital to the whole Christmas faith? I think he's treading on thin ice here. The Church needs its own to support it, not slate one of its most popular festivals which draws people in like at no other time in the year.

He also slates Once In Royal David's City for saying that children should be "mild" and "obedient", saying that "This sounds suspiciously like Victorian behaviour control." Well he would do, he's from Croydon.

His rant appears in his new book called Why Wish You a Merry Christmas? and you can pick up a copy here, if you'd like to read more.

What's your favourite Christmas Carol?

Whether it’s Away in a Manger, Silent Night, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, O Little Town of Bethlehem or The First Noel, Classic FM and the Radio Times want to hear from you, because they've teamed up to search for the Nation’s Favourite Carol this Christmas.

Voting opened at 6am yesterday (Tuesday 1 December) and will close on Sunday 13 December, with the full results being announced in a special live programme - The Nation’s Favourite Carol - presented by Howard Goodall on Christmas Day from 12pm to 3pm .

To cast your vote for the Nation’s Favourite Carol, follow this link.

And if you'd like to find out more about the origins of your favourite Christmas songs, why not pick up a copy of What is Myrrh Anyway? here to gen-up on all your festive-related knowledge?

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me... eight maids a-swimming!

Some people believe that the carol ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ is one of the so-called catechism songs, with the list of gifts acting as a coded message to represent significant elements of the Catholic catechism.

In this case, the eight maids a-milking stand for the eight beatitudes mentioned by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, as follows:

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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Blessed are the meek: for they shall posses the land.

Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice's sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

However, for some the eight maids a-milking address two of the major themes of fifteenth and sixteenth century English celebrations and parties during the Christmas holidays – those of food and romance.

Until the advent of refrigeration, milk was not a common drink because it spoiled quickly. However, milk based products that did not spoil, such as cheese, sour milk and custards were prized treats. Cheese and sour milk are the result of processes that expose milk to so-called friendly bacteria which convert the milk to a state where it can be preserved for a longer period and is also tasty. Custard is similar but this involves the cooking of the milk, which kills the harmful bacteria thereby extending the period during which it can be safely consumed.

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The maids, of course, refer to the women who would milk the cows to obtain the milk in the first place. In times past, the milking of cows or goats was typically a job for women. However, the term maid is also the shortened form of maiden which is a young, unmarried, woman. By combining the images of maiden and milk, it is easy to see how this particular gift possibly has more to do with romance than with cows!

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me... five gooold rings!

Did you know...?

The original, traditional version of the carol The Twelve Days of Christmas, does not contain the famous theme 'Five Gooold Rings'.

A man called Frederic Austin changed the way people sang the line 'Five gold rings' to the version we know now, and this version of the line - but only this one line, out of the whole carol - is still copyrighted today.

So if you played or sang 'Five Gooold Rings' over Christmas this year, you owe Novello & Co some money!

Carols from King's

They are as traditional as mince pies and Christmas pudding and they're on in about 15 minutes.

A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is the Christmas Eve service held in King's College Chapel. The Festival was introduced in 1918 to bring a more imaginative approach to worship. It was first broadcast in 1928 and is now broadcast to millions of people around the world.

This evening the chapel choir from King's College, Cambridge, under the direction of Stephen Cleobury, sings carols old and new in Gothic splendour, everything from God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen to O Come All Ye Faithful. There is also the story of the Nativity and poetry readings from the likes of T S Eliot.

18 December - What's your favourite Christmas Carol?

Some weeks ago, we asked, on this blog, what your favourite Christmas number 1 is. Well now we're asking - or rather Classic FM is asking - what is your favourite Christmas carol?

To have your say, visit the Classic FM website where you will be able to choose from a huge number of carols.

Personally, I find it hard to choose only one carol but I've always enjoyed the rather nonsensical I Saw Three Ships. It has the galloping rhythm that a song associated with dancing (which is what a carol really is) should have.

I Saw Three Ships is a traditional Christmas carol from England, and some sources assert that this song is "an upbeat variant of Greensleeves", which has a similar meter. The earliest printed version is from the 17th century, possibly Derbyshire.

The whole idea of ships having anything to do with Christmas probably comes from a carol sung during the Christmas holidays about the middle of the 16th century:

All sons of Adam, rise up with me,

Go praise the Blessed Trinitie, &c.

Then spake the Archangel Gabriel, said, Ave, Marie mild,

The Lord of Lords is with thee, now shall you go with child.

Ecce ancilla domini.

Then said the virgin, as thou hast said, so mat it be,

Welcome be heavens King.

There comes a ship far sailing then,

Saint Michael was the stieres-man;

Saint John sate in the horn:Our Lord harped, our Lady sang,

And all the bells of heaven they rang,

On Christ's sonday at morn, &c.

This carol is sometimes known as Christmas Day in the Morning. Joshua Sylvestre, in his Christmas Carols - Ancient and Modern (circa 1861), said that, 'It has always been a great favorite with the illiterate, and from its quaintness will be found not displeasing to the more refined.' So that's me told!

15 December - What was the First Noël?

'The First Nowell' is a traditional English Christmas carol, most likely dating from the 16th or 17th century, but possibly dating from as early as the 13th century. But what was the first nowell?

Well, the answer is in What is Myrrh Anyway? (as well as the Bible, as it happens), available from all better bookshops now.

Readers of a certain age may remember the 1984 television adaptation of John Masefield's fantasy novel The Box of Delights, which starred former Doctor Who Patrick Troughton. Well, the seasonal theme music was Victor Hely-Hutchinson's orchestral arrangement of 'The First Noël' from his Carol Symphony.

And here, for your delectation , is the haunting opening to the show and the end of the first episode which features the music more fully.

And now, some music...

A Gaelic Silent Night - Enya style

The New Age Irish songtress doing her thing, this time singing Oíche Chiúin, or rather Silent Night in Gaelic.

Looking for some Christmas music?

During the writing of What is Myrrh Anyway? I listened to quite a lot of Christmas music, to help put me in the mood to write a Christmas book during March and April. As a result, I have a few recommendations for anyone looking for some suitable festive music come this December.






If you fancy going back to the roots of Christmas music, try a Medieval Christmas by The Orlando Consort, or the up-lifting Christus Natus Est, An Early English Christmas, by The Sixteen







For a more secular Christmas, as might have been enjoyed in the Tudor age and beyond, look out for An English Folk Christmas.










And then of course there's the more traditional Carols from Clare or Carols from King's.

Good King Wenceslas

A whimsical and wistful rendition of an old classic by the incomparable Loreena McKinnett.



You can purchase Five Songs for the Season here.

What would Christmas be without carols?

These days, carols and carol singing are inextricably tied to Christmas, but it should be remembered that carols have been written for many other festivals that occur throughout the year. A song does not even have to have any religious relevance for it to be called a carol!

There is, of course, a whole chapter on the subject of Christmas carols in What is Myrrh Anyway? However, due to such things as word limits and page limits, I wasn't quite able to cram in all the tasty facts about carols I would have liked, so here they are - presented for free! A small Christmas gift from me to you. ;-)

Did you know...?
Joy to the World was written by Isaac Watts in 1719. However, the current music that accompanies the carol was adapted from Handel’s Messiah by Lowell Mason.

Did you know...?

Adeste Fideles (which is also known as O Come All Ye Faithful), was supposedly written by Saint Bonaventure, Saint Francis’ biographer, who died in 1274. However, the earliest existing manuscript is dated 1790 and signed by one John Francis Wade, a French Catholic music dealer.

Did you know...?

Origins of God Rest You Merry Gentlemen are obscure but it is likely that it comes from 16th century Cornwall.

Did you know...?

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing was originally written by Charles Wesley, the famous hymn-writer, in 1737.

Did you know...?
The children’s favourite Away in the Manger was inspired by Martin Luther’s From Heaven Above I Come to You, written in 1535.