Readers share favorite Christmas memories

Christmas caroling is beloved tradition

By Anna-Margaret O’Sullivan
Special to The Criterion

For me, one of the most delightful Christmas customs—this one handed down from the Middle Ages—is caroling.

I grew up in a little village, a college town. When the college students went home for Christmas in the middle of December, our little “crossroads” with its population of about 250 residents was peaceful and quiet.

Choirs of one village church or another strolled along the snowy roads—we had roads, not streets—singing the lovely Christmas melodies:

“Silent night, holy night …”

“Away in a manger, no crib for his bed …”

“O, holy night …”

And my favorite, “It came upon a midnight clear ... .”

My great-grandmother was an invalid. The carolers came into our yard, surrounded the porch, and sang sweetly and clearly just for her. They did this for all the village shut-ins.

As a college student some years later, I belonged to the Classics Club. We planned to go caroling just before school let out for the holiday, singing time-honored Christmas songs, such as “Adeste Fidelis.”

The night set for the caroling was bitterly cold. It was snowing and the wind was blowing a gale. I had somehow forgotten a scarf and my ears were freezing.

It is doubtful if any of the residents inside their warm living rooms could hear our gallant attempt at singing, but we tried. I have seldom felt such relief from snow and wind, or felt more grateful, than when we were invited in by Professor and Mrs. Conklin and given mugs of hot chocolate. We needed it.

Another time I went caroling was very different. This outing was in the 1960s during the week before the public schools closed for Christmas.

I was teaching at Wood High School in Indianapolis. It was a joy for pupils and teachers to hear the beautiful carols sounding softly outside their classrooms as small groups of music students walked the halls singing as they went along the corridors.

One of our teachers was at home convalescing from an illness. Believing that he was missing us, I wrote a get-well letter about activities at Wood and sent it to him. The in-house caroling was the outstanding pleasure I was sorry that he had to miss at school.

In spirit, the one who listens to Christmas carols bridges the years, helps Joseph prepare a place in the hay for Mary to rest, and kneels in love and wonder beside the holy babe of Bethlehem.

(Anna-Margaret O’Sullivan is a member of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Franklin.) †