The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year. It is usually on the 22nd of December, and is celebrated near or on that date. The word carol means dance or a song of praise and joy. Thousands of years ago, carols used to be written and sung during all four seasons as a way to praise them and share in the joy of the changing seasons. While it was once custom to sing at every season, only the tradition of singing them at Christmas has really survived!

Helpful Resources: Click able Sing-along Christmas Carols This site offers clickable sing along Christmas carols. It offers several of the best Christmas carols out there, classic carols like White Christmas, and newer carols like Rockin' around the Christmas tree. Wikipedia: Christmas Carols This is the Wikipedia of Christmas carols, it includes carols from different origins, carols you can dance to, the history, great singles, etc. It offers plenty of Christmas carol history, origin, and information. 12 Days of Christmas Sing-along This site offers the 12 days of Christmas sing along Christmas carols for your viewing and listening pleasure. This site is mostly classic carols, but also has fun new carols that are more modern as well. History of Carols This site offers the history of carols, it offers some really fun stories about carols, and it has a link for karaoke Christmas songs. It is a fun Christmas site that is filled with carols and song lyrics. Tradition of Carols This site is an article explaining the tradition of carols. It gives examples of some of the best Christmas carols, most classic carols, as well as some of the more recent and jazzed up Christmas carols. Custom of Caroling This is a fun site that explores the custom of caroling and more Christmas traditions of Christian origin. It explains the Christian roots of the caroling tradition and explores some of the religious carols. Most Popular Christmas Songs and Poetry This site offers the origin and lyrics of the most popular Christmas songs and poetry. It has printable carol sheet music, and lets you not only see the songs but learn a little about them as well. Christmas Carols This site gives the definition of a Christmas carol, and some links to finding other information. It includes a look at Charles Dickens book titled "A Christmas Carol." Easy to navigate website. List of Christmas Songs This is a list of Christmas songs that you can actually click on and listen to. It offers downloadable songs, and printable lyrics for users interested in Christmas carols, both new and old. Latest Christmas Carol Lyrics This is a fun site filled with the latest song lyrics for the Christmas carols that are focused on Santa, reindeer, and the more Western traditions of Christmas rather than the religious side of the holiday.

So, how did things go from pagan songs sung during Winter Solstice to Christmas carols of a Christian nature being sung a few days later? Well, early Christians started to take over the pagan solstice celebration, and as they did so they replaced many of the pagan songs with Christian ones. This was done gradually, and with the help of some of the kings and rulers of the time, and it took years for the full affect to be in place.

Most would agree that these changes originated in AD 129, when a Roman Bishop said that a song called 'Angel's Hymn' should be sung at a Christmas service in Rome. From there little is known until about AD 760, when another famous Christmas hymn was written by Comas of Jerusalem for the Greek Orthodox Church. It was after that when composers all over Europe started to write carols for the Christmas season. However, even this did not get things going very quickly. Why? Well, at the time, most of the carols were written and sung in Latin, and most people could not understand it, and thus were not interested in singing those carols. By the 1200s, most people had lost interest in using carols for Christmas, or even in celebrating Christmas at all.

So, what changed? How did Christmas and the carols come back? Well in 1223, St. Francis of Assisi started his Nativity Plays in Italy. The people in the plays sang songs or 'canticles' that told the story during the plays, while occasionally there were songs in Latin, most were in a language that the people understood, and thus soon the people were joining in. This did not stay in Italy, people found much joy in using song to celebrate, and these new, understandable carols spread to France, Spain, Germany and other European countries.

So, while carols were sung thousands of years ago, the earliest carol like the ones that we are familiar with today, was written in 1410. It was about Mary and Jesus, and the different people they met in Bethlehem. Only a small portion of the carol still exists.

During the Elizabethan period, most of these carols are untrue stories. Many of them are based on Christmas stories, or are about the holy family, or other aspects of Christmas. However, they were mostly just seen as entertaining, rather than religious. These were not usually sung in churches, or for worship purposes, but rather were sung in homes, and by traveling singers or minstrels. The traveling singers would change the words to the carols based on where they were. They changed them for the local people wherever they were traveling.

Do not think that because Christmas carols were popular, they lasted. The fact is, in 1647, Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans came to power in England. Because they were in power, the celebration of Christmas and singing carols was stopped. But never fear, carols survived because people still sang them in secret. This continued to be the case until Victorian times. Then two men called William Sandy and Davis Gilbert collected a lot of old Christmas music from villages in England and started to bring Christmas carols back.

Today Christmas carols are often sung in public, and door to door, but before carol singing in public became popular, there were official carol singers that would sing the carols. These official caroler were called 'Waits'. The waits were often led by local council leaders, and they would take their groups to the town squares and villages, and the town people would give them money. If there were groups that were not led by the local leaders, they were considered beggars. The waits only sang on Christmas Eve, and would sing until the Christmas celebrations began. This lead to the Christmas carols becoming very popular, soon orchestras and choirs were performing on the streets, and new Christmas carols were being written, and popularized.

Soon new carols were written, new ways of performing them on the streets were developed, and they became more and more popular. Customs of caroling, singing in the streets, and performing the Christmas carols are still popular today! Many of the carol services created in the 1700s are still around today, for example, Carols by Candlelight services. At this service, the church is only lit by candlelight, and carols are sung to celebrate the holiday, worship the lord and savior, and remember the reason for the season. Carols by Candlelight services are held in countries all over the world. Another popular carol service still practiced today is the service of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College in Cambridge, UK. This service takes place on Christmas Eve and is broadcast live on BBC Radio to all over the world. This Christmas carol service was first performed in 1918. It was originally a way for the college to celebrate the end of the First World War. It has grown from there. In this particular carol service, it is always started with a solo A single choir boy sings a solo of the first verse of the carol "Once in Royal David's City." There are nine bible readings to tell the story of Christmas, and between each of the readings there are various carols sung, usually one or two that reinforce or were created because of the scripture or story read. That is where the name came from, you have nine lessons and carols, and it is all done by candlelight.

Christmas carols are a big part of the holiday tradition. They have grown in popularity, and have changed in theme over the years. Some carols are religious in nature, others secular. Some pagan, others Christian. Some deal with Santa Claus, others are about the birth and life of Christ. No matter what the carol is, it is a good thing to remember the long standing tradition did not come easily, but did survive the ages, and that the act of worship and celebration with singing is one that has been used for centuries, and still holds great value today.

Some of the more popular Christmas carols today include: "We wish you a Merry Christmas." "Silent Night." "Away in a Manger." "O Little Town of Bethlehem." And more. Every culture, country, and family has their own tradition of Christmas carols, and every home has a different way of participating in the tradition of Christmas carols. For those who want to take the less religious route to Christmas carols, there are songs about Santa Claus, or about Frosty the Snow man, that can be sung and caroled in joy and praise for the season. Many families have traditions of going door to door to sing carols to friends, and neighbors during the holiday. Today you can attend concerts, hear carols on street corners, turn on the radio, purchase a CD, MP3 download, etc. to hear the carols that bring the spirit of Christmas and celebration of the season to life. Christmas would really not be Christmas without the tradition of caroling, with the many different versions, long time favorites such as "The Twelve Days of Christmas," and newer songs every year that make a splash and add to the holiday feelings of love, cheer, joy, celebration, and praise.