Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols, may employ lyrics about the nativity of Jesus Christ, traditions such as gift-giving and merrymaking, cultural figures such as Santa Claus, or other topics. Many songs simply have a winter or seasonal theme, or have been adopted into the canon for other reasons.
The U.S Army Band performs a Christmas concert in 2010
King's College Chapel, Cambridge, (left) in the snow where the Nine Lessons and Carols are broadcast on the BBC and around the world on Christmas Eve
Child Christmas carolers in Bucharest, Romania 1929
The large repertoire of Advent and Christmas church music plays an important role in services
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the liturgical year in Christianity, it follows the season of Advent or the Nativity Fast, and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many countries, is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians, as well as culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the holiday season surrounding it.
Nativity scene depicted using Christmas lights
Adoration of the Shepherds (1622) by Gerard van Honthorst depicts the nativity of Jesus
Nativity of Christ, medieval illustration from the Hortus deliciarum of Herrad of Landsberg (12th century)
The Nativity, from a 14th-century missal, a liturgical book containing texts and music necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the year
