Here We Come A’Caroling
A neighborhood friend and I decided one year when we were around 11 years old, that we were going to practice singing some Christmas carols, then take our show on the road, or more realistically around our cul-de-sac off of River Road in Richmond. Our confidence and jubilation wavered considerably when the first woman whose doorbell we rang heard us start singing. She gave us a very strange look and tried to close the door before we were through one verse of our well-rehearsed repertoire of songs. It wasn’t until later that my friend and I found out that the neighbor is Jewish, and therefore not as likely to enjoy our impromptu Christmas caroling performance on her steps. For all she knew, someone had put us up to it, knowing she was Jewish. I doubt it occurred to her that we were just unlucky enough that we would pick her house to start with. But the truth is, we were that unfortunate.
Silver Bells
When I was in fourth grade at St. Basil’s School in Kimberton, Pennsylvania, I was selected to hold one of the traffic light props that we used for our Christmas Show when we sang “Silver Bells.” Everything went fine while we sang the song on stage. I had fun singing with my classmates, knew all of the words to the song, and got into it.
The trouble came at the end of the number when everyone took a bow. At the time, it didn’t occur to me that I shouldn’t bow when I was holding a tall pretend traffic light. I came to my senses about the same time when the poor kid in front of me got a good bop on the head. It was totally an accident. Call it a classic case of crowd-pleasing nerves. If I’d meant to do it, the kid would have responded accordingly to being clobbered instead of turning around and giving me a troubled look. We were both sufficiently surprised I didn’t get any demerits.
Here's a very cool video of "Little Drummer Boy" I would love to hear live:
A Note about my Christmas Merrymaking Mishaps Series I’m not sure about you, but my family and friends have had some rather amusing and entertaining incidents that have occurred when engaging in some very popular holiday traditions such as: Christmas Caroling, Cookie Decorating, Christmas Tree selection, and Nativity set-up.
