Ding dongmerrily on high

30 FOCUS The Magazine November/December 2019 www.focus-info.org

FOCUS The Magazine 31www.focus-info.org

Since moving to London, I have createdmy own Christmas traditions. One of myfavourites is to attend at least one carolservice. Churches all over London hold allkinds of carol services open to the public.Sometimes they are sponsored by corpora-tions, sometimes they feature guest choirs,but they are always a magnificent way toenjoy a traditional Christmas.

A brief history

Carols have a long history, going back towhen pagans sang songs for celebration.Despite common belief, Oliver Cromwelldidn’t outlaw Christmas entirely, but hedid outlaw carols in 1656. He enjoyedsinging in private but thought it was notappropriate to sing in church. You couldworship freely if there was a Catholicchurch attached to an embassy and em-bassy chapels had such great music, thatProtestants also attended.

Where to go?

e search begins in early November, whenyou should comb the internet and websitesof all the churches in London. If you aren’tfamiliar with churches in your area, hoponto Google maps and type ‘churches’.en click on their website to see if theyare holding a carol service. Some churchesoperate by volunteers and often their web-sites don’t have the information up until

later. Just keep coming back if you find achurch you like.

What to expect

On arrival at a carol service, you will begiven a programme of service. is will letyou know what is in store for you. ereare a few different types of carol services,but the most common will be one of NineLessons. is is where a carol and a lesson(or reading) are alternated. Since there arenine, you’ll hear many carols. Some carolswill be sung by the choir only, others willinvite the congregation to join in. ewords are always provided, and you can al-ways lip sync if you are not familiar withthe song.

US vs UK carols

Americans who attend their first carol serv-ice will be a little thrown by some of thesongs. On paper, your eyes will delight thatthey are going to sing “Oh Little Town ofBethlehem”. However, the tune is very dif-ferent. It turns out there are many songsthat Americans sing at Christmas that havecompletely different tunes here in England.It goes back to a combination of wantingto break away from Britain (even changingsongs!) and composers taking an old tuneand giving it new life with a new melody.

Things to look for

e church of St Bartholomew the Greathave recently offered two services that arevery enjoyable to attend. One is a Christmascarol service using only American songs (seeabove for explanation). e other is aGerman carol service, where the songs aresung in German and are popular tunes fromthat country. Be sure to arrive early as theseevents are becoming very popular. Anotherservice to watch for are the services held onSundays, to mark each week of Advent.ere are also ‘crib services’ to prepare thecradle for Jesus that include children andsometimes live animals.

Something different

St Clement Danes and St Brides Fleet Street(and a few others, too) offer carol servicesthat end with mulled wine and mince pies. Ifyou are wanting something completely dif-ferent, Organoke is held at St Giles ChurchCamberwell. ey play the organ, hosted bymusic hall turned rap star Ida Barr, and singall the contemporary Christmas songs thatare played on the radio. Belt out your heartto “Last Christmas”, or sing “Fairytale ofNew York” in the most peculiar setting. Ofcourse, they end with Mariah Carey’s “All Iwant for Christmas is You”. Tickets sell outin September but they sell 100 tickets locallyand you can still grab some if you are luck.

Amber Raney-Kincade is the American Tour Guide in London, offering walking tours and privatehire to those looking to explore on foot. Find out more at www.AmericanTourGuideInLondon.comor follow her on Twitter @AmericanLDN