December 28, 2020 Sixteen boys make up the treble voices of the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, which sings in the annual 'A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.' Kevin Leighton A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is no longer available. Sponsor News feature By Colleen Phelps Christmas Eve at King's College, Cambridge, usually follows the same routine. There's a morning sound check, a lunch break, and then once the choirs are lined up to start, a red signal light flashes. One boy steps forward, unaccompanied, singing the perennial opening tune, "Once in Royal David's City." For many listeners, this is the moment Christmas begins. And while the audience will still hear all the same readings and carols as scheduled, the service released this year will be not be live. While the people at King's had planned as recently as the week before Christmas to broadcast live as usual, albeit without a congregation, they also prerecorded elements of the service throughout the fall just in case of a required shutdown due to COVID-19.