Christmas Carols Class Play or Assembly – written by Sue Russell

This joyful romp through 13 carols can be used by a class or a whole year group. The numbers are easily adaptable as, with the inclusion of The Twelve Days of Christmas, endless ‘parts’ are available!

Although most of the assembly time is taken up with the singing of carols, a little background information is given to each.

Other Christmas scripts I have written are “Christmas Spirit – The Conversion of Mrs Scrooge” (a grumpy old teacher!) and “Snow White and the 22 Dwarfs”, with scripts being added to my website www.plays-r-ussell.com all the time.

Sample text:

Christmas Carols Assembly

Music 1 Once in Royal David’s City

(Children walk in, singing this carol, with soloist singing first verse to take children to seats, and then rest of children joining in afterwards)

Narrator:             Good morning and welcome to our assembly on

Whole Cast:        Christmas Carols!

Narrator:             You have probably all sung the carols we have selected for you this morning. But I wonder how many of you know the story behind them? (Pause) Stick around and we will do our best to enlighten you!

                                Let’s start the ball rolling with:

Whole Cast:        The Twelve Days of Christmas!

Narrator:             So. What are the Twelve Days of Christmas?

Child 1:                 They are the last six days of the old year, and the first six days of the new.

Child 2:                 December 26^th to the 31^st, and then January 1^st to the 6^th.

Narrator:             But why twelve?

Child 3:                 Because this was the number of days it took the three kings to find baby Jesus.

Music 2 We three Kings of Orient Are (first verse and chorus)

Narrator:             And why was the day after Christmas Day chosen as the starting point?

Child 4:                 Because Christmas Day is a holy day, not a day for partying! Whereas Boxing Day, or St. Stephen’s Day

Music 3 Good King Wenceslas (first verse)

Child 5:                 This carol is about a king and his page giving alms to a peasant, on Boxing Day or St. Stephen’s Day. The snow is so deep that the page nearly gives up but finds that by walking in his master’s footsteps, he is able to continue.

Narrator:             Indeed. Winter weather can be pretty daunting.

Music 4 In the Bleak Mid Winter (first verse)

Child 6:                 In the Bleak Mid Winter was written by English poet Christina Rossetti.

Narrator:             Brrrr! Feels a bit cold all of a sudden. Time for something jolly!

Music 5 Jingle Bells (first verse)

Child 7:                 Jingle Bells was written by an American minister for his Boston Sunday school children – for Thanksgiving! It proved so popular it was taken up at Christmas!

Narrator:             I can understand why! Let’s hear another cheerful one!

Music 6 Deck the Halls (first verse)

Child 8:                 The author is unknown but the words are again from America! The Fa la la refrain was probably originally played on a harp.

Child 9:                 Silent Night was written to be accompanied by guitar. This was because the writer, Austrian priest Joseph Mohr, discovered that the church organ was broken, one Christmas Eve, so hurriedly put together Stille Nacht so that his church wouldn’t be without music over Christmas.