In this next installment of 12 Days of an Adventures with Sarah Christmas we’re tackling a subject that can be the cause of a lot of debate – Christmas music!
While the most popular festive tunes we hear today are largely a 20th century creation, the origins of Christmas songs goes back much further. Hymns for Christmas were being sung in Latin in Europe as early as the 4th century, but these were far from the happy, festive songs we recognize today. It was not until the 13th century that carols as we know them started to emerge, with native language Christmas songs being created in Italy, France and Germany at this time.
From mainland Europe the tradition of singing songs as a collective to celebrate Christmas spread to England. Groups of people known as ‘wassailers’ would go from house to house to sing, asking for gifts in exchange for their entertainment, and the tunes being sung started to be formalized and written down.
Many of the classic Christmas songs come from England, including ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’, ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ and ‘Good King Wenceslas’ but it was during the Victorian era in the 1800’s that Christmas music really became popular. Queen Victoria’s husband Albert was from Germany and was a big fan of the traditional celebrations. They popularized decorating trees, having roast turkey and giving gifts on Christmas Day itself (previously these had been exchanged at New Year).
The Victorian Christmas craze extended to music, with some of the most famous songs being created in the 19th century. ‘Silent Night’, ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’, ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘Away in a Manger’ are just a few of these that are still sung regularly today.
In the 20th century Christmas became the huge holiday it is today, and the creation of new music reflected this popularity. The themes moved away from religion and tradition and towards Santa, the reindeer, snowmen and more. Through the 1930’s and 40’s family favorites like ‘Winter Wonderland’, ‘White Christmas’ and ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ were released and the tradition of festive hits has continued ever since!
Whether you groan at the first airing of Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas is You’ or excitedly look forward to when Christmas music collections start playing everywhere, it’s impossible to deny the impact music has had on the holiday celebrations for so long. To get you in the festive spirit, listen to the Adventures with Sarah Christmas playlist here and feel free to add your own favorite holiday music!
If you’ve missed any of the other posts, catch up on all the previous days of our 12 Days of an Adventures with Sarah Christmas here.
