As a child of about ten years old, one of my favorite things about Christmas was going Christmas Caroling on Christmas Eve. Along with the neighbors, we’d bundle up in our winter coats and take our candles with tinfoil holders, caroling music sometimes tucked under our arms. Then the five or six us us would trek out while it was still light and start knocking.

When the door opened we burst into an off key tune, singing our Christmas hearts out in hopes of blessing others and getting a little monetary blessing ourselves.

I remember one year standing out in the cold and singing, only to be asked inside to sing to a huge table full of Christmas celebrators. Though extremely nervous, we belted out our song and basked in the glow of applause.

As we went house to house, year after year, we had our fair share of thrills. One year one of our tinfoil candle holder caught on fire! What a finale to our Christmas carols that was and we still ended up getting a little money for our efforts.

I’m sure getting money was part of the motivation to go door to door, but so was bringing joy to others. In fact, one year all of us donated our money (or at least half of it…my memory is fading in this area) to the church.

Over the years I’ve often wanted to go caroling with my children in our neighborhood, but I’m not sure if we’d be accepted. Have times changed that much? Maybe I have changed and have lost my gene for adventure. Though my kids are almost old enough to start out on their own. I hope one day the idea will catch on and they will pick up the tradition I started almost 30 years ago.

And next time you hear the off key melody of Silent Night pounding through your front door, please open it with a smile and invite the carolers in. Oh, and don’t forget to slip them a five and Merry Christmas on the way out!

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