OK & a good idea Fd, have added the following link on the new thread too.

The momentum for the BBC exploring our Folk Roots is gathering pace:

Sunday, 27 December 2009 13:00 GMT on BBC Radio 3

The Early Music Show - Christmas Carols

'Catherine Bott looks back on the origin of the Christmas carol and roots out some of the original versions of some of today's popular tunes. Carols appeared in Europe thousands of years ago, but they weren't originally the Christmas fare we know today. They were pagan songs for the Winter Solstice and people would sing them as they danced around stone circles. The word 'carol' suggests a dance-song expressing praise or joy. Early Christians took over the pagan solstice celebrations and so the link was established between carols and Christmas. More often than not Christmas carols were popular tunes to be performed in gathering places or in the streets, only slowly did they start to find there way into the church.

Some of the melodies for today's popular carols are very old, and through the course of this programme Catherine draws on some of the original versions of the carols, for songs such as Ding Dong Merrily On High and Good King Wenceslas. She explores some of the ways in which early composers have brought carols into the body of the church service.'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00h3ycc