42: Celebrating Victorian Christmas Carols: Bringing Historical Festivity to Your Homeschool

In this festive and heartwarming episode of the "Music in Our Homeschool" podcast, host Gena Mayo takes listeners on a delightful journey through the history of Victorian Christmas caroling. Have you ever wondered where the charming tradition of going door-to-door singing Christmas carols originated? Gena explores the roots of this age-old practice, which dates back to the Victorian era during the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901.

Discover how Christmas caroling became a popular way to spread holiday cheer and foster community spirit, inspired by traditions brought over by Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert. From the moving traditions of wassailing to the vibrant street performances by town musicians known as "waits," Gena paints a vivid picture of how these customs transformed over time.

Listeners are treated to fascinating stories behind beloved carols such as "Here We Come A-Wassailing," "The Holly and the Ivy," and "I Saw Three Ships," exploring their origins and the meanings behind their lyrical content. The episode also highlights iconic carols like "Silent Night" and "O Holy Night," sharing the beautiful tales of their creation and their enduring legacy.

Perfect for homeschoolers and anyone interested in the rich tapestry of Christmas history, this episode provides educational insights and enchanting anecdotes that make Victorian Christmas caroling come alive. Gena, a homeschooling mom of eight and experienced music teacher, blends historical context with a passion for music education, ensuring a captivating listen for all ages.

Tune in for practical tips, sing-along opportunities, and a deeper appreciation of the carols that have shaped our holiday celebrations. Don't miss the chance to enrich your homeschooling experience with this festive and informative episode of the "Music in Our Homeschool" podcast. Be sure to check the show notes for links to sheet music and sing-along videos to enhance your family's musical Christmas festivities.

See all links and resources mentioned in the episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/christmas-caroling/

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Transcript

Victorian Christmas Caroling podcast 

[00:00:00] Hi, my fellow homeschool harmony heroes. It's Gena Mayo with Music in Our Homeschool, and today we're talking about a really fun topic and it is Christmas caroling. Have you ever gone Christmas caroling where you just actually go up to someone's house and you're with a group of people and you sing to them?

I used to do that when I was a kid. My church would have our youth group pile in a van and we would drive to different people's houses that were part of our congregation who were not able to get to church. Maybe they were sick or had a broken leg or something. So we would go and sing for them and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

And you know, Christmas caroling has been around for a long, long time, way back to the Victorian age. So I want to talk about that today and tell you all about how Christmas caroling got started and we'll talk about some very specific songs that were written to be sung door to door for Christmas caroling.

If you are a homeschooler looking for ways to easily [00:01:00] and affordably include a quality music education in your homeschool, you've come to the right place. This is the Music in Our Homeschool podcast. I'm Gina Mayo, homeschooling mom of eight and music teacher for over 30 years. 

So first of all, I said it started in the Victorian era. Why is it called the Victorian era? Well, it's related to the dates of Queen Victoria of England's reign, and that was 1837 to 1901. This is also the time period that Charles Dickens, the author of A Christmas Carol, lived. 

Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, was from Germany and he brought with him the tradition of putting up a Christmas tree in England. So the people in England love the royal family much as they do today. And everything that the royal family did, people wanted to do, too. So when they put up the Christmas tree, [00:02:00] including Charles Dickens family , it spread throughout England. So singing Christmas carols around the Christmas tree became a way to foster a sense of community and togetherness during the festive season.

Many homes had either a piano or an organ, and the tradition of singing Christmas carols at home became popular. The tradition of wassailing, which is going from door to door and singing to get a drink from the wassail bowl in exchange for gifts, even if the gift is just singing and wishing good health to the people at the home. Wassail is a drink that's similar to spiced hot apple cider. Wassailing still exists, but it's largely been displaced by simple carol singing.

There's even a Christmas carol called Here We Come a Wassailing, . It's partly a New Year's song too, because the words say, "Love and joy come to you, and to you your wassail too, And God bless [00:03:00] you and send you a happy new year." 

Some of the other lyrics for Here We Come A Wassailing are, "Here we come a wassailing among the leaves so green, Here we come a wandering so fair to be seen. We are not daily beggars that beg from door to door, But we are neighbor's children whom you have seen before. We have got a little purse of stretching leather skin. We want a little of your money to line it well within." Well, that's being pretty direct, isn't it? 

"Bring us out a table and spread it with a cloth. Bring us out a moldy cheese and some of your Christmas loaf. God bless the master of this house, likewise the mistress too, and all the little children that round the table go. Good master and good mistress, while you're sitting by the fire, pray think of us poor children who are wandering in the mire." So those are the lyrics for Here We Come a Wassailing.

Another practice that became even more [00:04:00] popular during the Victorian era was singing Christmas carols in order to raise money for charity. It had begun in England in the 17th century. Town musicians called waits. W A I T S were licensed to collect money in the streets in the weeks leading up to Christmas. The Industrial Revolution enabled the mass production of musical instruments and printing presses, which dramatically increased the availability of sheet music.

That meant that more people had access to the musical instruments and could learn to play and perform Christmas carols in their own homes. The wide availability of sheet music also allowed for greater dissemination of carols as they could be printed and distributed to different communities.

If you watch any version of A Christmas Carol, you'll probably see a group of singers standing on a street corner singing carols. Two of the very popular songs that were sung during the Victorian era during [00:05:00] Christmas caroling time were The Holly and the Ivy and I Saw Three Ships. So let's learn a little bit about those two songs.

The Holly and the Ivy is a traditional British song. We don't know who originally wrote it, and that means there are many different versions of it. It can be traced back to the early 19th century, but the lyrics, which connect Holly with Christmas, date way back to medieval times.

I Saw Three Ships is also a traditional carol from England, and we don't know who originally wrote it, but it was first published in 1833. The lyrics mention ships sailing into Bethlehem. Now if you know anything about geography, you know that the closest body of water to Bethlehem is the Dead Sea, and that's 20 miles away.

So what are the three ships that are sailing into Bethlehem? It's believed that maybe they are three ships that carry the relics of the biblical magi to Cologne Cathedral in the 12th [00:06:00] century. Or another possible reference is to King Wenceslas II, king of Bohemia, who wore a coat of arms that was Azure three galleys argent. A galley is a ship. 

Or, and I like this reference the best, the three ships are actually the camels used by the Magi as they came from the east because camels are often called the ships of the desert. So you can pick your favorite version and listen to and sing I Saw Three Ships. 

Some more beloved Christmas carols, which were popular during the Victorian era, were Silent Night, which was written in 1818. This timeless carol was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber and Joseph Mohr in Austria. Father Mohr had been planning his special Christmas Eve mass for his small church in a village in Austria when he discovered the organ was broken. He knew he couldn't hold service without [00:07:00] music, so he prayed to ask God for inspiration.

The Lord brought to his mind a poem that he had written two years prior. Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. He put that poem in his pocket and ran to his friend Franz Gruber's home, just hours before his service was to begin, and he asked Gruber if he could write some music for the poem that could easily be learned and sung by the church's choir, and accompanied by a guitar. He did that and it was first sung that night during a candlelight service. It's become one of the most widely sung and loved Christmas carols of all time. 

Another one is O Holy Night, which was written in 1847. It was composed by Adolph Adam and it's known for its powerful and expressive melody. It was written in France when a parish priest in a small French town commissioned a local poet to write a poem for the village's Christmas Eve [00:08:00] mass. Sounds familiar. Capot, the poet, decided the best way to write a poem about Christmas was to read through the story of Christ's birth in the Bible. So he read Luke 2 and he wrote the words to O Holy Night.

He then asked his friend Adolph Charles Adam to compose the music to the poem, and it was sung for the first time that year on Christmas Eve in that small French village. It was then translated into English by John Sullivan Dwight. 

Some other Christmas carols that were written during the Victorian era are Jingle Bells, We Three Kings, Deck the Halls, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, O Come All Ye Faithful, Good King Wenceslas, Joy to the World, and The First Noel. Some older Christmas carols, these were written prior to the Victorian era, but they were still popular during the Victorian era, are the [00:09:00] Wexford Carol, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, the Coventry Carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas, O Christmas Tree, O Come All Ye Faithful, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

 Be sure to check the show notes or description so that you can head over to the blog post where you can listen to or sing along with the Christmas carols on videos and get the sheet music for some of the songs that I mentioned in today's episode. Now be sure to join me next week because I have a very special guest, very popular in the homeschool community that I am interviewing, so you will enjoy that one.

If you have a moment and you enjoyed today's episode, please take a moment to leave a review. It would mean so much to me. Well, until next time, keep the music alive.
See all links and resources mentioned in the episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/christmas-caroling/