Caroling is a salient part of Christmas in our tradition. Children would be knocking on the gate before singing carols. And they would be glad to receive something no matter how small. However, only a few houses are giving to the carolers for a variety of reasons - no more coins, no more candies, no one in the house, the house owner is not around, etc. But the gist of the alibi is for the kids to be disappointed. For our part, we prepare at least a sack of coins - 2,000 pieces of 1 peso coins plus bags of candies that we buy from the grocery. Each caroler is given at least 2 pieces of candies and 2 coins. For bigger carolers, we give a maximum of 5 coins = 5 pesos plus candies. That is our way of sharing our blessings in exchange for promoting Christmas via the carols.
That sounds like a great tradition. I remember one year during the Christmas holiday we had carolers in our neighborhood. This only happened once ironically but it's a memory that I have always cherished. Too bad in my area this really seems to be a dying art.
Yes, it seems to be dying in my neighborhood too! I love Christmas Carols and everything about Christmas, seems Im in the minority but I cant wait for the Christmas decorations to be in the stores.... I will probably start listening to Christmas Carols today.
That used to be a tradition here, but I think it's pretty much a dying one. Today, I'm afraid that if someone were to sing Christmas carols within hearing of an atheist or Muslim household, there would be lawsuits alleging hate speech. Everything offends someone these days.
Its a shock for me to read your Christmas decorations are not in the stores yet! LOL, our Walmart was putting them out a week before Halloween, which I didn't like, btw. Otherwise, I share your love for the Christmas things.
They are out, Ruby....I was speaking in general terms. Ive always loved Christmas but even more now that I have less to do so its not very stressful for me anymore. Just buy the 5 grandsons presents...the 3 youngest I buy Some lego sets on Amazon Prime...free shipping! The two older ones are the ones that live 3 hrs from me and where I spend the Holiday and for them its some type of card...usually Itunes. My daughter does most of the cooking with a little help from me. My kids are generous in the gift dept and I always have something good to open. I enjoy watching my grandsons opening their presents....what's not to like? Christmas brings back the child in me. My only wish would be a white Christmas....
When I was a kid, many of the churches went caroling. I went to the Assembly of God, and we usually went each year. Someone in the church had a big flatbed truck with the wooden sides (so we didn't fall off), and they would sometimes put some straw in the back to help us keep our feet warm, although we were always well bundled up, and the pickup bed would be packed tight with all of the kids and most of the adults. We sang as we drove down the streets, and then we stopped at some of the houses where older members of the church lived, and would seranade them. Sometimes, they knew we were coming, and had made cookies for us, which we always enjoyed. The last stop was usually the nursing home, where we would spend a half hour or so, just going up and down the hallways and singing Christmas caroles. Those people always loved having us come there and sing caroles for them ! Afterwards, we went back to the church, and they had hot chocolate and more cookies for us. It was alwas a part of the Christmas season that I looked forward to each year. I think that little towns probably did those kinds of things more than larger cities did, even back then.