Today, I’m delighted to get a chance to participate in the 2009 Virtual Advent tour. Please check out the other participants in this great tour, as there are some excellent holiday posts up by some amazing bloggers. Here is my small contribution!
I don’t have many Christmas traditions that other people out there in the world don’t also have. Oh, there are my little private rituals–I like to listen to David Sedaris read “The Santaland Diaries” every year, for example, which probably says something fairly unflattering about me. But other than that? On Christmas Eve I go to my parents’ house, we go to bed early, wake up to open gifts, spend the day being lazy, and then it’s over.
The one thing I do, though, that I think is really special every year is participate in a caroling group. My friend Echo, a retired teacher I met through the blind community, which is small and quite interconnected, has been organizing the caroling trip every year for well over 30 years. Off and on for the past fifteen years, I’ve been in attendance, missing only a couple of years when I was living out of state. (I like to think of those as the Christmases from Hell, but that’s a completely different post.) The number and makeup of the caroling group have changed a lot over the past few years, but I love doing it every year, because there’s something about being in a room with people and singing your hearts out that, despite the logistical nightmares of setting the whole thing up, is extremely magical.
For me, that magic has coincided with several milestones in my life. Firstly, if it hadn’t been for caroling, I wouldn’t have met and become close friends with Echo and her partner. They are both wonderful women who have taught me a lot, women whose grace and dignity I hope I can eventually possess in some small measure.
Secondly, it was at a caroling party that I first made out with my then-boyfriend. I won’t go into details or anything, because I don’t remember them, but I do remember feeling more deeply in love with him in those moments than I think I did the whole rest of the time we were together. In my more wistful moments, I sometimes daydream that someone else will show up at a caroling party, because a small part of me is convinced I will meet my soulmate while my voice joins with others in singing “Joy to the World” or “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” Of course, this is not likely to ever happen, because I’ve known most of the people I carol with for years, and I’m sure if they ever thought they should set me up with someone who might be my soulmate, they’d have done so before now and not in such a chaotic setting.
And there is chaos. It all starts the Friday night before caroling, when those of us who live inconveniently far away from Echo converge on her house. The evening is usually spent in making sure we all have sack lunches to take with us, catching up on news and gossip, and eventually, the night is capped off by a rehearsal for those among us who, unlike me, play instruments more complicated than a kazoo. Echo, like me, enjoys surrounding herself with beautiful music, and consequently she knows a lot of musicians, so our carols have some complicated arrangements. (We sing Peter, Paul and Mary’s “A’Soalin’”, which, when you listen to the version Peter, Paul and Mary sing seems deceptively simple. Well, it’s not.) The musicians vary from year to year. This year, we will have two guitarists and a ukulele player. One of the guitarists, a brilliant woman who, in her day job, teaches math, also plays fiddle, flute and mandolin. (I always like to bask in her presence, in hopes that some musical talent beyond a strong and mostly on-pitch singing voice will magically rub off on me. This has yet to happen.) We also usually have someone willing to play keyboard, usually one of our blind musicians who inherited the stereotypical ability people think all blind people have to play music by ear. (I do not have this gift, much to my own dismay. I suppose I should have paid more attention and been more enthusiastic about the piano lessons I was forced into as a child, but I didn’t. *Sigh*.)
After the instrumental rehearsal, we all fall into bed to wake up bright and early on Saturday. Echo traditionally makes a breakfast casserole, which is loaded with more cholesterol and artery-clogging agents than you can shake a stick at. It’s extremely popular, and I have to confess that I don’t like it. (It should also be noted that, while I am not embarrassed to relate that my first makeout session happened at caroling, I admit to not liking the breakfast casserole with a sense of shame. After all, it’s one of those immutable traditions that people enjoy, and, despite what people may or may not think about me, I don’t always like being a killjoy.)
After breakfast and mingling with other carolers who have begun to arrive, we begin a three-hour rehearsal period. This usually doesn’t end up going very smoothly because inevitably someone is late, someone needs directions to where we’re going, and people are focused on catching up with people they haven’t seen since last year’s trip. But we sing through the hard pieces, giving our instrumentalists a chance to practice once more, only with a larger group.
I should say something about our caroling materials. Echo and our other guitarist, a mom and writer by day named Woody, have put together a diverse collection of songs. We have everything from the old chestnuts, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “Jingle Bells”, “Up on the Housetop”, etc. to more religious fair–”O Come All Ye Faithful”, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, “Joy to the World”, etc. And then there are the other pieces, including the aforementioned “A-Soalin”, as well as “Light One Candle”, another Peter, Paul and Mary song. We also sing a version of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” that was arranged by The Weavers, (another 60′s folk group), and a catchy African song called “A Ka Bway La”. (I’m fairly sure that is a phonetic spelling, since when I google that particular spelling in hopes of providing you a youtube link, I get nada.) The nontraditional carols are my favorites, because only at caroling do I get a chance to sing them. Also, as a folk music fan, I love that we’re doing our part to keep obscure songs in circulation.
The actual caroling part of the adventure is fairly standard. We usually hit at least one nursing home. Sometimes we sing for people in hospitals. We’ve sung for little kids, and we’ve sung for homebound friends who find it difficult to get out and join us. (Those types are my favorites because they are genuinely excited to have us sing for them, and are much more engaged with us. The home caroling also gives us a chance to call up people who live too far away to come so that we can sing for them. Thanks to the invention of cell phones, we’ve now found it possible to carol to more than one person at a time this way.)
After the singing, we all troop back to Echo’s house, where her long-suffering partner serves up vats full of chili. People usually bring snacks and side items to go with it, and it’s a grand potluck, which is a great way to cap off the day.
So that’s my holiday tradition, in far more detail than you ever wanted. What are some of yours? Do you have favorite Christmas carols, or odd Christmas songs you like that my caroling group should learn.
P.S. Here are youtube links to a few versions of the songs we sing.
And here’s my contribution to our caroling experience. For the love of my bandwidth, I’d appreciate if you’d right click on this file,k hit Save As, and open it on your own system rather than streaming it from mine.
Christmas Morning