Hymns and Carols

Dramatic presentations were given in churches and basilicas to highlight the events of the nativity. Over time, lay people took parts of the presentations and began enacting them in more popular venues. The first to hymn the Nativity was in the Fourth Century. By the Eleventh Century, the Germans further modified the songs into shorter verses. Noels were sung in the Eleventh Century and the first Carols were sun in the 13th Century. Adestes Fideles is from the Seventeenth Century.