Write a Christmas Carol

As we all know Spid loves to write songs, and there are two songs in his adventure, Spid the Spider Helps Out at Spidmas.  So in the run up to Christmas, to encourage your children to write creatively, try our fun song writing activity – to write Christmas carol.

Guidelines for parents and teachers

First share some inspiration, and consider the form of a favourite Christmas. Here are the lyrics to a carol we’ve chosen.

‘Deck the Halls’ Christmas Carol

Deck the Halls is one of the most famous Christmas carols. The original English lyrics, were written by the Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant in 1862.

Deck the hall with boughs of holly,

Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
‘Tis the season to be jolly,

Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Don we now our gay apparel,
Troll the ancient Christmas carol,

Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!

This carol has a beat of four; 1-2-3-4, repeated twice per line, so 8 beats per line. In music, recurring beats are referred to as a ‘metre’ or ‘meter’ (American spelling).

You can also see that the last words of two pairs of phrases of the carol rhyme. These are also called ‘rhyming couplets’ (from the word, couple – meaning two).

How to write a Christmas Carol

To start, depending on the age of your children, consider dividing the children into pairs (to make the task easier).

Then ask them to write their own four (or more) phrase or line Christmas carol. Ask them to:

• First, think of messages to say to the people of the world
• Then to combine their ideas in sentences with a rhythm or metre (i.e. number of beats or syllables) in each line that are the same (or at least similar)
• And also ideally to include rhyming couplets, i.e., ensure that the first and second lines, and then third and fourth lines rhyme with each other.

Finally, to help your children understand the meaning of Christmas, here are some prompts for a Christmas discussion.