Sunday, November 28, 2010

Christmas Caroling memories

Growing up in  Parchment,MI  in the late 1960's, early '70's, I remember that a large group of us neighborhood kids used to get together and go around to houses in the neighborhood and go Christmas caroling.

I'm not talking about a local church organizing the singing, I'm talking just a bunch of kids from the neighborhood would get together and go around singing. We all went to different churches, and, at least in my own case,lol....weren't necessarily in the choirs at our churches or schools. We just liked singing Christmas carols, I guess?

I can't remember who started it, why we started, or how many years we did it...but I do know that my little sister (10 years younger) says she still remembers going with us. I remember that there was always a lady at one house who would insist that we have divinity candy when we were done singing, which I despised then and still do to this day, but always took a piece to be polite.

Thought about that today, so went on a YouTube search for some of the songs we used to sing....a capella, of course, since that's how we used to sing:) bundled up against the cold, and I don't remember us having sheet music to read, either, we just sang the Christmas carols by heart, because we all knew them.

So, here's a short set of Christmas carols for you to enjoy:)

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Joy to the World

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Silent Night

and ending with, always my favorite
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

(and a pic of two of my siblings on the back porch of our house'back in the day')



(Update: my sis mentioned in the comments the Christmas play we did, so I'm adding the picture for that,too)

we made our own costumes, and did a version of the Christmas story at a local nursing home, I believe.


2 comments:

Tracy said...

My favorite Christmas memory...so magical. The caroling, the sledding, decorating the tree, the Nativity play we did, and staying up super late in your and Sue's basement bedroom on Christmas Eve...playing games...seeing if we could stay up all night. I love that these memories are still so strong for me.

Anonymous said...

Love the memories! Do you remember reading the Christmas story from the Bible by candlelight on Christmas Eve? And by the way, YOU were the one who started the Christmas caroling - just as it was you who always organized the neighborhood kids to play games. You were a real organizer! Love you all, and Merry Christmas! Mom