Christmas for cathedral choristers

[dmpltree]

Hi. We are cathedral chorister parents (of 2 boys) and I am interested to know what other places do about Christmas Day lunch. The boys board in the cathedral school in the run up to Christmas, and sing both morning service and evensong on Christmas Day. In between they and their families (some who live at some distance) need to eat...what do other places do/provide?

Don't own a chorister but was once invited by an adult one - a full Christmas lunch was laid on for the families, and big Christmas presents for all the boys.

DH was a boy chorister, but his family lived in the city concerned so he could go home for a couple of hours.

He remembers there was a 'waifs and strays' list which would scoop up out-of-towners (both adults and boys+families) and make sure everyone was properly looked after.

Does school definitely not host Christmas Day lunch? Can you say which city?

Thanks for replies so far...I will be interested to hear about more places. Here (Ely) the school kitchen is closed, and the cathedral is busy doing a lunch for the lonely etc. So the tradition is that parents themselves take turns (when your boy reaches year 7) to arrange a drinks reception, canapés and cold buffet lunch for everyone else...including various staff etc. whilst it is quite jolly, it is a big ask...and on a tight budget, especially as this year the girls choir are joining too...so myself and 2 other mums are responsible for drinks for 160 and lunch for 140 .. And all the invites, ordering, table setting, cleaning up etc etc. due to new health and safety rules, we are no longer allowed to provided a lot of the food..so parents have to bring their own main meal really...we supply the bits round the egdes etc. I am just curious to what extent other places expect the parents to do as much..or whether in some places the cathedral or school look after the choristers and families ,rather than expect them to work so hard on xmas day! I have got used to this arrangement, but some of the newer mums are aghast!

I'm not surprised- my experience was attend Evensong, go home! Are most families far away? Otherwise it seems a bit mean to expect them to hang around entertaining and feeding the children who are there working 😮
We lived near and hosted Christmas lunch for travelling parents who'd come up to collect but the boys were warm and fed, then rested between services.

Where I am as the Choristers are not boarders everyone does lunch at home. The girls sometimes live further away but only do evensong.

King's have always had a bee in their bonnet over H&S and seem to find rules that don't apply anywhere else in the world!

A friend's child used to be a chorister but before the girls' choir was around so they used to do the lunch as you described but including the main meal too in the Monastic Barn. The families would all have their Christmas lunch etc at home on Boxing Day.

Would it be worth looking at the cost of getting a caterer in?

No help here, DS is a Cathedral Chorister but not with an attached school. And they don't sing Evening on Christmas Day. I feel frazzled rushing backwards and forwards with DS Christmas week but now feel I have it easy. Good luck!

At Salisbury everyone brings their own, the children do place cards and they can just cram everyone into one big room. Back to school after the morning services, mulled wine and mince pies (IIRC!) served to everyone, then upstairs to eat, a couple of short speeches and communal singing, then the choristers head off for practice and parents clear up. Disposable cups / plates / paper tablecloths provided which helps, room sorted in time to head off to evensong, which is early for both Christmas and Easter (3 or 3:30). Tea and coffee after then home. Although plenty of familes aren't far away, all the choristers board in the run up to the festivals.

We're going to miss it although it will be nice to have Christmas at home this year too. And I'd discovered it was much easier to cook Christmas dinner on boxing day when you weren't also trying to go to church and open presents!