To Sing or Not to Sing Christmas Carols
The Three Reasons to Sing and Not Sing Carols During Advent
Advent is the four weeks of waiting and preparation for the birth of Christ. The fourth Sunday is the Sunday closest to Christmas Eve. Every church goes through a worship preparation decision over when the congregation begins to sing Christmas carols.
Arguments have been engaged over this discussion. The two main options are:
Sing only Advent or preparation hymns until Christmas Eve when the traditional Christmas carols are sung. Continue to sing the Christmas carols through the 12 Days of Christmas - which is usually two Sundays.
Begin singing the Christmas carols when Advent begins or on the first Sunday in December.
Advent’s Origin
The New Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship dates the first Advent references to the sixth century as a possible parallel Lent. Six Sundays were used to prepare people for the birth of Christ. Seventh and Eighth-century texts show a 5-week and 4-week Advent.1
Roman Emperor Aurelian, in 274 C.E. set Christmas Day on the winter solstice as December 25. It was later determined that Roman scientists had the winter solstice on the wrong day (should have been January 6).2
The Worship Debate
The modern culture begins celebrating the gift-giving holiday of Christmas with the largest shopping day of the year - the Friday after Thanksgiving. Many radio stations move to all Christmas music on this day as well.3 The culture begins celebrating Christmas with December. Many church people, lay and clergy want to sing the carols in worship throughout December.
Others prefer we wait. The historic practice of focusing on the advent of God being born into the world as the human baby named Jesus leads to a focus on angels, prophecy, waiting, preparing ourselves for change, as well as eschatology - how God will bring the world into the fullness of the Kingdom of God (i.e. the End of the World). Advent is about learning to wait on God’s time.
Christmas Carols Must Wait
With this thematic focus on waiting, one way worship liturgy does this is by saving Christmas carols until Christmas Eve. So church staffs decide to only use Advent hymns and music through December and then use the carols on Christmas Eve and the following Sunday. Technically, this could be two Sundays, but many churches celebrate the Baptism of Jesus or Epiphany on the second Sunday after Christmas Day.
Three Reasons to Keep Carols until Christmas Eve
Historic practice. The classic “We’ve always done it that way,” but now coming from the clergy and worship wags.
By only hinting about the coming Christmas carols, we model the building of patience with the anticipation of the grandeur of “O Call All Ye Faithful” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” on Christmas Eve.
Culture has appropriated Christmas for a consumer holiday. If we keep the carols until the 12 Days of Christmas (Dec. 25- Jan. 6), we re-claim the real meaning of Christmas as the birth of Jesus the Christ - the Savior.
Sidenote
Having served on four 500-1,500 member church staffs, I’ve sat in on these music debates nearly every year. Music staffs are usually strong in the carols out of Advent camp. But they are practicing, often with twice a week sessions, the singing of the Christmas carols and music as they practice for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services.
So though the congregation must wait the music staff and choir are not waiting. They are playing the famous carols on the organ and handbells. They are singing special versions and traditional versions of all this great music. Meanwhile, on Sunday morning the congregation gets to sing the Advent classic hymn “Let Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.”4
Three Reasons to Sing the Christmas Carols All December
The hymnbooks are often filled with over 30 carols and hymns. This is a lot of great music.
The congregation knows a lot of these carols and it is so amazing to sing the music we know. Music staff can make these carols so much better by adding instruments and special choral parts.
The congregation comes out in full in December, as do visitors. People come to worship in December. They come for the wonderful music they are hearing badly done by pop stars on the radio. They come to hear worship music done with love and care. They come for “The First Noel,” “Away in a Manger,” and “Go, Tell It on the Mountain” done well.
Sidenote
Confession of a church kid: we never went to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Rarely did we go to worship the Sunday after Christmas either, not till my parents joined the choir. Therefore, I never got to sing the Christmas carols in my home church.
Fortunately, my parents played the Christmas carols on the living room console record player with albums by the Ray Coniff Singers, Englebert Humperdinck, Anne Murray, Harry Belefonte, and Johnny Mathis. For me the Johnny Mathis carol versions are canon.
Finding the Middle Ground
Here are two solutions for the Advent v. Christmas Carol debate:
Begin Advent mid-November and go three Sundays through the first Sunday of December. Do the Christmas season the second Sunday of December through the end of the year.5
Use a three-year cycle:
Year 1: Do the Advent themes of waiting, with Christmas carols beginning either on the Fourth Sunday of Advent or on Christmas Eve.
Year 2: Do the Advent themes of Hope, Faith or Peace, Joy, and Love corresponding to the four Sundays of the Advent candle lighting and use appropriate Advent and Christmas carols corresponding to these themes.
Year 3: Focus December on the birth stories and sing Christmas Carols the whole way through December.
In Conclusion
Remember that most people love the Christmas season so people have emotions about the planning and discussion. Use peace when you talk together. Listen well. Support each other. Schedule a meeting for Christmas planning in May which will give the preachers, music leaders, and every one time to work together to plan the best possible Advent Christmas season for your church.
The New Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship, Ed. J.G. Davies, Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1986, 1.
The New Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship, 171.
Some radio stations begin Christmas music on November 1.
This IS my second favorite Advent hymn after “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”
A Music Minister friend has suggested if we love Advent themes so much we could do them in February when, in the north, the weather is terrible and people are thinking about the end of the world. He might have been joking.