Many people sing special songs at Christmas which are called Christmas Carols. Traditionally carols are sung to celebrate many religious festivals, the word comes from an old French word meaning dance which was danced to celebrate the shortest day of the year. Now they are usually associated with Christmas. Carols were first sung to tell the story of Jesus' birth by actors at Graecia. They became popular because they were not in Latin the language of the Church, they were in languages which people could understand and join in with.
In England many folk including children go from house to house carolling to raise money for charity. At Christmas many churches celebrate a special Christmas service which is made up of Bible readings and carols. Many cathedrals also hold a carol service and the wonderful choirs have a chance to show off their beautiful singing.
Almost every school, Sunday school and playgroup in the UK ask their children to prepare and perform a nativity play for Christmas. Christmas is the biggest of the Christian festivals and it affects the whole country if for no other reason than because it is a national holiday. Nativity plays, carol services and parties all form part of the celebration which tend to spread over several weeks. The plays are tradition passed on from a time when they were educational...plays put on in villages to teach the people who did not read. Many bible stories were learned this way, not just the Christmas story. Sometimes these stories were not from the Bible, but were amusing...the forerunner of the pantomime also put on at Christmas.
Pantomime is traditionally a British custom. The story of the performance is usually based on traditional tale or fairy tale but has dance, jokes and song added. There has to be a pantomime dame...played by a man, and a leading boy...played by a young lady. Always the baddie has to be booed and hissed by the audience, the hero and heroine aided by cries of "There he is!" and "Behind you", with many "Oh yes he is!" or "Oh no he isn't" instigated by characters on stage for the audience to join in with. It is usual for topical, political, or risque jokes to be added, very often the humour is on two levels; for adults and for children. Sweets are often thrown to children, and always good has to triumph over bad so that the hero and heroine can marry at the end. Costumes, scenery and props are on a grand scale as each pantomine tries to outdo other pantomimes. The whole thing is absolutely over the top in the grandest possible way.