Carols pre date Christianity. Pagan songs were sung at the time of the winter solstice and stone circles (like Stonehenge in Wiltshire) were often used for these rituals. One of the definitions of the word carol is ‘a kind of circular dance’ (in this case spelled as Carole) as well as being a joyous song. Christians adopted the pagan winter solstice celebrations and eventually the carol singing became a Christian practice. The earliest carols date back to Roman times and were also popular in the 11th to 15th centuries. The Reformation in Britain in the mid 1600’s suppressed the singing of carols and therefore the writing of them also. The Christmas carol underwent a revival in the 19th century with many well known favourites being written during this period (O Little town of Bethlehem 1868, We three kings 1857, Silent night 1816 to name but a few) and are still popular today.
In 1940 Irving Berlin wrote ‘White Christmas’ which was made famous by Bing Crosby in the 1942 film Holiday Inn. Crosby also sang the song on Christmas day 1941 on American radio, but copies of that recording do not appear to have survived. However, this song was not at that time targeted at the Christmas record market.
Things took a new direction in 1956 with the recording of the first ‘pop’ Christmas song. Harry Belafonte recorded ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ for his album An Evening with Belafonte, which was released as a single (78 and 45 rpm) in 1957 reaching the number one spot that year. Thus the Christmas number one single had evolved. Sir Cliff Richard is arguably most associated with the Christmas single with chart success from the 60’s to 2000’s. The battle for the Christmas number one slot was most keenly fought in 1973 when Slade and Wizzard had ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ and ‘I Wish it could be Christmas Everyday’ (respectively) in the charts for Christmas. Slade won, but both songs are still very popular in Britain today.