Plan a Caroling Party

As a follow-up to Brooke's great tip below...

I am thinking many of you join us with your love for Christmas music. Here's a way to start a tradition you can take to the streets. I also love that it has an old world kind of feel to it!

Call or e-mail your neighborhood or other friends who like to make semi-fools of themselves (Unless you actually sound like our dear Sarai; yes, among everything else, that girl can sing! I can still hear her rendition of "Holy Ground" as I got ready to walk down the aisle. Sigh.)

Anyway... :)

Decide on the particulars such as a time, place to meet, songs to sing, and houses to visit. Though we'd love to do our whole neighborhood, for example, it's too much with most of the choir four and under. So we each picked a handful of houses that are meaningful to us or that we thought could really use the cheer. We also chose to do three classic choruses that we can easily teach the wee ones... "Joy to the World," "Jingle Bells," and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

As the organizer you might think about delivering a little packet in sweet nativity bags ($1.00 at the Hobby Lobby for ten if you get there during one of the 50% off Christmas stuff weeks!) Attach the official invite to the front, which I simply printed right off the computer. Inside we also included a simple "songbook" (literally a cover with our songs stapled to it-- nothing too difficult!) and a CD of the chosen songs. For an exhaustive list of lyrics check this out.

In preparation for the big night, think about gathering other necessary supplies: a neighbor with a trailer to haul around little (and big!) bundled up bodies, lots of flashlights and bells, a card table full of portable hot chocolate at the meeting place, and an appetizer contribution (This dip is way easy and sooooo good; we just substitute the cheapest bag of Italian blend cheese and only a 1/2 cup of the mayo and 1/2 cup of the sour cream). Because, of course, afterwards everyone will have worked up an appetite!

May the smallest of our sopranos, altos, and whatever-o's take smashing afternoon naps before the caroling we all go!

~Katrina
ps... Sorry for no pictures, which would have been cute too... I'm waiting on Santa to bring that hard drive...