Christmas music

Christmas music encompasses religious carols, secular seasonal songs, and instrumental works associated with Christmas. It ranges from worship music to popular entertainment.

Christmas carol: A song associated with Christmas, often celebrating the Nativity or expressing seasonal devotion. Carols form the religious and communal core of Christmas music.
Medieval Christmas carols: Songs in medieval Europe associated with Christmas celebrations, often using vernacular languages and dance-like forms. They show that early carols were not limited to modern church hymnody.
Christmas Eve: The evening or day before Christmas Day, observed with religious services and cultural traditions. Many communities center their Christmas music-making on Christmas Eve services.
Advent music: Music associated with Advent, the Christian season of preparation before Christmas. Advent music belongs to the lead-up to Christmas rather than the holiday as a whole.
Christmas hymn: A Christian song of praise or worship used in Christmas services. Hymns give Christmas music a formal place in church worship.
Christmas in Victorian Britain: The nineteenth-century revival and reshaping of Christmas customs in Britain. Victorian customs helped establish carol singing and familiar seasonal imagery.
Christmas caroling: The practice of singing Christmas songs in public or from house to house. Caroling turns the repertoire into a shared, mobile social activity.
Easter music: Music associated with Easter, including Christian hymns, choral works, and popular songs. Easter provides a comparable seasonal repertoire centered on a different Christian feast.
Christmas standard: A widely recognized popular song repeatedly performed during the Christmas season. Standards are the durable popular repertoire beyond the carol tradition.
A Christmas Carol: Charles Dickens's 1843 novella about Ebenezer Scrooge's transformation at Christmas. Its popularity reinforced Victorian ideals of Christmas that shaped seasonal culture.

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