The Laboratory

Everyone was a big fan of the children's carol book a few days ago so we thought we'd mention one of the stars of children's Christmas songs. Sydney Carter is probably most famous for three of his songs, "When I Needed A Neighbour", "One More Step Along The World I Go", and of course "Lord Of The Dance". But it's his Christmas output that we feature today. Carter was born in 1915, grew up in Horsham and studied at Oxford, was a conscientious objector driving ambulances in WWW2, and wrote poetry and songs for musicals and revues, including with Donald Swann (of Flanders and Swann).  "Every star shall sing a carol" is beautiful and wistful and gets close to the "aliens know who Jesus is" meme. St Malachy's Primary School Choir, singing at the Albert Dock, Liverpool, 2011 And then, like many of Carter's other socially aware hymns and poems, we have "Standing in the rain, knocking on the window on a Christmas ...

Rooting around at school I found this marvellous piece of nostalgia. Loads of carols I'd love to do at church but maybe the vicar isn't brave enough. Have a look at these lists, I guarantee some of them will come flooding back into your head. Let us know your favourites in the comments, and I'll paste up the sheet music and videos. Altogether now: "It was on a starry night, when the hills were bright..."  

It's getting closer! Time for one of our Christmas traditions - it's the best Christmas film ever made: There's a whole new article about the making of it in today's Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/dec/21/how-we-made-the-muppet-christmas-carol and it features some promotional photos I have never seen before. So settle down and watch! "The cold wind it chills you, it chills you to the bone..."

Today's post is all about carol services! Maybe you're going to one this Sunday, or next Sunday, or on Christmas Eve. Or maybe like me, you are doing all 3! So many different songs going round in my head as we practice all the choir pieces... But the best one will be my school's carol service on Tuesday - 5 different choirs, congregational carols on the organ, readings and soloists. It's a fantastic time! Nothing sounds better than a choir of children singing their hearts out. Here's a video of one of my favourite carols, "Tell Out The News": And a carol I heard sung at St Alban's Primary School that is really beautiful, "In a Stable": But in case you need something to dilute all the shmaltz, here is your cut-out-and-keep Carol Service Bingo card - just don't shout "House" too loudly! (thanks to The Church Sofa )

Today's post is taken from Brian Bilston's Poetry Advent Calendar :

Another Saturday, another anniversary. Last week we looked at the Radio Times from 1964, today it's 1914. While the Christmas focus has been on the battlefield football, there's a wealth of information about what was happening back home. First though, here's a 100 year old version of A Christmas Carol. No Muppets, no music. You'll just have to make up your own: http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-christmas-carol-1914/ Anyway, back to the war at home. In his book, The Fateful Year: England 1914 , Mark Bostridge describes how: ...the celebration of Christmas was considered a patriotic duty, the only concession to the war, now four months old, being the replacement of tinsel and paper chains with strings of brightly coloured allied flags. In London, the West End was thronged. In the suburbs, poulterers fairly bulged with geese and turkeys; happily, the cost of Christmas dinner would be only a touch more expensive than in peacetime. All the same, those who went ou...

Well done to those of you who got up at 5.30am this morning to celebrate the Winter Solstice - it's not always on the 21st Dec you know! The Guardian gives more info as to why it skipped a day this year: When is the winter solstice?  Next year is a leap year, so shunts it back to the 21st again. As the days are now getting longer, we can cheer ourselves up by watching that most wonderful of Christmas films, A Muppet Christmas Carol. And this year, as an extra bonus, there's a deleted scene not on TV or the DVD from its original release, where young Scrooge and his girlfriend Belle are breaking up and she sings a song "When Love Is Gone" about it. It doesn't feature Muppets and is a bit sad, but it's a lovely song, and Michael Caine joins in. It's analagous to the song by Kate Winslet "What If" from the animated Christmas Carol of 2001, which is also lovely so I've put it below.

Our church held its carol services yesterday and today, the one chance I get each year to hammer out some good tunes on its organ, which is coming up to its 100th anniversary next year. As well as the traditional numbers, our worship pastor Martin led the band and choir in renditions of 'A Christmas Offering' and a very gospelly 'Joy to the World'. It's strange to think that so many of the carols that people regard as really traditional have only been popular since the 60s and 70s, when David Willcocks and his team did new arrangements for the 'Carols for Choirs' series, a standard that supplanted all other publications. Universally used by choirs worldwide, the harmonies and descants that we love to hear and sing were almost all created for these books. People almost get offended when a carol service doesn't include their own favourite. This month the BBC Music Magazine had the results of a poll into choir leaders' favourite carol. The results were...

Christmas wouldn't be the same without A Muppet Christmas Carol. But of course the story of Scrooge is a staple of the TV scheduler's armoury. Here are some of the best and funniest adaptations, most of which are on TV this Christmas. Scrooge (1951), starring Alastair Sim as Scrooge Scrooge (1970), a musical film adaptation starring Albert Finney as Scrooge and Alec Guinness as Marley's ghost Scrooged (1988), a remake in a contemporary setting with Bill Murray being a misanthropic TV producer who is haunted by the ghosts of Christmas The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), featuring the various Muppet characters, with Michael Caine as Scrooge A Christmas Carol (1997), an animated production featuring the voice of Tim Curry as Scrooge as well as the voices of Whoopi Goldberg and Michael York Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001), an animated version with the voices of Simon Callow, Kate Winslet (who sings 'What if'), Nicolas Cage, Jane Horrocks, Rhys Ifans, Michael Gambon, an...