Carols from King’s

Out in Oman for Christmas a few years ago, I managed to maintain my Christmas tradition of listening to the service from King’s College Chapel, Cambridge – using our dial-up internet connection to get the broadcast from the BBC. I’ve never missed it; but I had difficulty explaining this obsession to my French boyfriend!

Since the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was first broadcast in 1938, it has been an essential part of many families’ Christmas.  But Londoners can get their dose of King’s College Choir a little earlier, as the choir will be singing at the Royal Albert Hall on December 18th.

Concert goers will get a little bit more than carols, as the concert includes the first part of Haydn’s Creation, Vaughan-Williams’ Fantasy on Christmas Carols,  and a Rimsky-Korsakov piece from the Snow Maiden (seasonally appropriate) played by the Philharmonia Orchestra. But I suspect it’s the carols that most people will be going to hear.

If on the other hand you have an iron constitution and can manage to be in Cambridge for Christmas Eve, you might attend the Christmas Eve service at King’s.  But you’ll need to queue from about 9 in the morning to be sure you can get in – some people start queueing as early as 7 in the morning in the freezing dark.

Picture credit: David Baron on flickr