Congregations in Great Yarmouth, Mulbarton, Heacham and Swainsthorpe were among the 18,414 people across the UK who smashed the existing world record for the largest number of people singing carols together across multiple locations.

 

Carollers beat the existing record of 15,000 singers - set in 2009 by Disney - in a co-ordinated carol singing events at hundreds of venues across the country last night (December 18) from 7pm.

Organised by Premier Christian Radio and sponsored by BibleLands, the unified carol singing events also included venues in Scotland, Wales and even Geneva and the new world record holders sang carol classics Silent Night, O Come All Ye Faithful, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Hark The Herald Angels Sing, and Away in a Manger.

The previous record was set-up when 15,000 carol singers joined the stars of Disney's A Christmas Carol to illuminate London, with Christmas lights and break the Guinness World Record for the biggest ever Christmas Carol sing-a-long.

Peter Kerridge, CEO of Premier Christian Radio, said today; "It's inspiring to see so many people across the whole of the UK get on board for this record-breaking attempt. It's been a lot of fun, and has brought people out to celebrate and really be a part of the spirit of Christmas. As far as we can tell with these initial figures, we've broken the record! We hope to get the rubber stamp from Guinness in the next few months."

 

The record attempt is part of the 'Christmas Starts with Christ' campaign, which exists to engage people with the true meaning of Christmas. It includes church poster, national newspaper and radio advertising.

 

Taking part in Norfolk were: Mulbarton Parish Church who gathered at the World’s End pub in the village; Heacham village carol service on Church Lane in West Norfolk; the Salvation Army Great Yarmouth Corps on Tolhouse Street and St Peter’s Church in Swainsthorpe in South Norfolk.

Rev Sally Gaze, from St Peter's, said 61 people took part there: “We are only a little church and every seat was full. It was lovely and everyone enjoyed singing all the carols back to back. We had to sing for 15 minutes and even after that time people kept on singing!”

 

Lois Carrick from St Mary's Heacham said: "We managed to attract an almost capacity congregation of about 300 people of all ages from the local community and the service was followed by very welcome mulled wine and mince pies."

www.christmasstarts.com  

Pictured top is the 300-strong congregation at St Mary's Heacham and, above, the congregation at St Peter's Swainsthorpe taking part in the record attempt.