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Christmas Carols: Topics in Chronicling America

Many early 20th century American newspapers published lyrics, stories, and music during the holiday season. This guide provides access to materials related to the "Christmas Carols” in the Chronicling America digital collection of historic newspapers.

Introduction

"An ancient Christmas custom and the carol which accompanied it and is probably the oldest carol extant." December 25, 1904. New-York Tribune (New York, NY), Image 12. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.

Enjoy reading stories of caroling throughout our country’s history! Find lyrics, music and heartwarming stories about Christmas carols. Read more about it!

The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.

The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.

Timeline

1900s In the early 1900s there was a revival of Christmas caroling in the streets and singing of Christmas music in churches around the country. Caroling has remained a tradition.