A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, King's College, Cambridge, 2020

[WildRosie]

I know this is three months away but it's just occurred to me that this event is very unlikely this Christmas. What gives - broadcast a repeat or hold a virtual service ? FONLAC has been around for so long it's difficult to imagine it not happening . It could be one of many similar Christmas casualties.

Agree it’s very sad. But they can just chop together the best bits of the past zillion years and we’d hardly notice the difference I reckon!

We listen every year. Maybe they could do a mixtape version “best of the best” for 2020. Plenty of discussion to be had and polls in the RT for audience participation.

It depends on what the regulations are at the time. I work in a cathedral, and the choir is back, but with restricted numbers. So if the rules are the same at Christmas, you could have a service with restricted numbers, with online/phone booking in advance only and a priority booking period for regulars.

Or if that is no longer an option, there might be a virtual recorded/livestreamed service without a congregation.

Or there could just be a prerecorded version with archive choir bits.

I have little doubt of a will for at least something to be arranged and broadcast but, just now, there is little prospect of the traditional proceedings. Plenty of highlights on YouTube in the meantime.

Thing is, it is so traditional, unless you happen to know one of the choristers or one of the readers you really wouldn;t know if they repeated last year's , or the year before, or a spliced service of several years.
I think this features so low on any concerns I might have about Christmas traditions not being quite right this year