A Christmas Tradition

Hi all,

This may not be the right place place for this article as it not
exactly Scouting, so I am sorry if it offends any of the readers.

The season of Christmas will soon be upon us, I have just returned
from our Scout Group's Christmas Church Parade ,part of which was
yet another nativity play. They never cease to amaze or amuse me, as
our not such little angels play angels and our young people try to
portray Christ's birth. Were the three wise men that colourful?
did they have digital watches? how many humps does a camel have?
How ever they all have one thing in common, tradition and a lot of
hard work.

One of my interests, all be it strange, is the study of the christmas
carol, I have over years collected many recordings, of choirs
singing carols, although the words are (almost) all the same
the presentation is can be varied from choir to choir, the
feeling and effect upon the carol can be quite different, making some
sad, some joyful.
Strange some carols depict Christ's Birth as being sad and others
happy.

Here in the U.K. at 3:00pm on Christmas Eve the Service of A Festival
of Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings College Cambridge is broadcast
on the radio, a tradition which has happened for over 50 years.
One of my traditions is to always listen to it. The standard of
singing is excellent. Recordings of the Kings College singing
Christmas Carols, can be found in almost very home, heard in every
high street shop, and played at every charity event in the U.K. at
Christmas.

Each year as a tradition I buy a real Christmas Tree with roots on and
decorate it, while I am doing that I have playing in the back ground a
recording of last years service. This some thing I have done for
over 20 years.

For those who like traditional music, and would like to sample some
of King's excellent singing, the service is broadcasy live at 15:00
GMT on the BBC's World service, and may well be uplinked to various
satellites.

I would be interested to hear if any of the Scouts-L readers in other
counries ever get to here the Service or have a similar tradition.

Any readers who would like a brief order of service, please send me an
email and I will send you one.

I understand that THE POPE's recording may well become this year's
Christmas No 1, does this mean that all the popular music stations
will be broadcasting extracts from it? Could make an interesting
change from White Christmas.

I hope all readers have an excellent Christmas.

YiS

Mike Tester
(Surrey.England.)

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