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The tradition of going from house to house carol singing has an uncertain heritage, but may have its origins in medieval times, when watches \u2013 which included musicians \u2013 patrolled England\u2019s towns and cities to keep order. The cathedral city of Lincoln, for example, had a group of watches, or Waits, until around 1850.<\/strong><\/p> In his short story The Seven Poor Travellers<\/em> (1854), Charles Dickens describes a group of musicians performing in a town one winter\u2019s evening: \u2018As I passed along the High Street, I heard the Waits at a distance, and struck off to find them. They were playing near one of the old gates of the City, at the corner of a wonderfully quaint row of red-brick tenements.\u2019<\/p> However, carol singing really came into its own in Victorian times, with the advent of the Victorian Christmas<\/a><\/strong>. This was when Christmas became a holiday that families could enjoy, and celebrate, and music in the home was a big part of these celebrations. The tradition of singing carols after the Christmas meal quickly grew in popularity.<\/p>