Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols

About the service at King's College Chapel, Cambridge

The Christmas Eve Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is primarily intended for the City of Cambridge and members of the general public. Apart from those reserved for members of the College and their guests, seats are kept for those who are prepared to queue however, as a result of the increasing popularity of this service, the demand for seats always outstrips the number available. Normally, anyone joining the queue before 9.00am will gain admission, but it is not guaranteed that this will be so. The queue is admitted at 1.30pm and the service, which is broadcast live on BBC Radio 4, begins at 3.00pm. It concludes at around 4.30pm. Please note that this service is not suitable for young children.

History of the service

Our Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was first held on Christmas Eve 1918. It was planned by Eric Milner-White, who at the age of thirty-four had just been appointed Dean of King's, after experience as an army chaplain which had convinced him that the Church of England needed more imaginative worship. A revision of the Order of Service was made in 1919, involving rearrangement of the lessons, and from that date the service has always begun with the hymn 'Once in royal David's city'.

The service was first broadcast in 1928 and, with the exception of 1930, has been broadcast annually, even during the Second World War, when the ancient glass (and also all heat) had been removed from the Chapel and the name of King's could not be broadcast for security reasons. Sometime in the early 1930's the BBC began broadcasting the service on overseas programmes. It is estimated that there are millions of listeners worldwide, including those to Radio Four in the United Kingdom. In recent years it has become the practice to broadcast a digital recording on Christmas Day on Radio Three, and since 1963 a shorter service has been filmed periodically for television.