Crying at Christmas carols getting out of control

[stealthbanana]

ds will be 4 this week. I remember having this moment of...emotion...when I was heavily pregnant with him and at a carol service and they sang silent night and suddenly just being overcome by thinking about the gentleness and innocence of a newborn baby (I KNOW).

Since then I have found carols progressively more emotional, culminating in, to my horror, this year, where I find myself uncontrollably welling up at ANY carol in ANY context. My kids were watching mickey’s once upon a Christmas this morning and I cried. Michael Bublé came on the radio and I cried ffs. MICHAEL BUBLÉ!!

Have I developed some kind of weird problem? How do I fix this? It’s embarrassing and mawkish. I’ve got a reprieve this year as not doing any in person carol services but will have to wear sunglasses to next year’s at the rate I’m going.

As long as you aren't screaming at the sistine chapel you are probably okay

beat me to it!!
I confess to crying whenever I hear a brass band. Watching Brassed Off is particularly traumatic!

Oh god yes. Brassed Off

We had an occasional teacher's choir at school but I was completely unable to sing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Listen to the words, it's a war time song about people who can't be together but putting on a brave face. It was the year my mother died of Alzheimers, I think, was the tipping point.

Have yourself a merry little christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yuletide gay
Next year all our troubles will be miles away

Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithfull friends who are near to us
Will be dear to us
Once more

Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas, now

Those are the original lyrics, later versions have different words, to make it less sad, I suppose, and relevant to the post war period. I think the original words are more appropriate in the present circumstances.

Me too. But I also cry at DIY SOS and anything medical. I was fine until I had the DCs.

Oh I’ve found my people! I’m welling up just reading this thread, I can’t get through Moana without tears either and Frozen 2 about finished me off. I’m going to carols with my in laws this weekend (outdoors, should be fun!) and as always I’ll be sniffling and trying desperately not to collapse into a wailing heap

@BigusBumus

I had DS3 on Christmas Eve 2006. He was born at 4pm and by 7pm I was in bed with him peacefully sleeping in my arms. The post natal ward was pretty much empty apart from me.

Then in the doorway to the ward, standing in the corridor appeared 4 people from the Salvation Army band, softly playing carols (with mutes I suppose).

I was a snotty, red faced mess. And still am when I hear them any time now.

Jesus @BigusBumus, that's set me off! I love carols and I love a brass band and I love a newborn...

Hooray! It's not just me! I have also cried at every Christmas film I've watched this year(yes, even Home Alone!) have reared up just reading the thread, I can cope with singing carols no problem it's just hearing them. It's definitely got worse now I am a mum although it started when I was about 16/17 and we went to a school concert that my little brother was in at the church, the sight of a group of 7 year olds singing 'I believe' in a darkened church lit only by a Christmas tree and candles nearly finished me off! In fact I only have to think about it to start sobbing 😭
I did a lot of singing at the time and played in a brass band and nothing ever got to me like those kids did.

@CaptainMyCaptain

We had an occasional teacher's choir at school but I was completely unable to sing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Listen to the words, it's a war time song about people who can't be together but putting on a brave face. It was the year my mother died of Alzheimers, I think, was the tipping point.

Have yourself a merry little christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yuletide gay
Next year all our troubles will be miles away

Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithfull friends who are near to us
Will be dear to us
Once more

Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas, now

Those are the original lyrics, later versions have different words, to make it less sad, I suppose, and relevant to the post war period. I think the original words are more appropriate in the present circumstances.

The Judy Garland version of this is guaranteed to have me a wailing mess at the best of times, but this year I can't even listen to it. It just seems to sum everything up so perfectly, especially the muddling through. I've always thought 'Keep Calm and Muddle Through' is more British than 'Keep Calm and Carry On'

I also cry when I hear children singing. The tears just roll. And at some Christmas adverts.

I’ve cried reading this thread. I cry at anything and everything. I can pinpoint when it started. I’ve always been a lump in the throat type but could stiff upper lip my way through. Then I pneumonia and was watching Polar Express with DS, and the little poor boy in his freezing dirty vest almost doesn’t leave his dark house to get on the train. We were skint, a bar of choc was a treat skint but our wee flat was warm and we had somewhere to go on Christmas where DS would be made to feel great. Anyway it all came out, sometimes you can be so miserable you feel you don’t deserve happiness or you expect it to be a trick. I cried through the whole film for children in this situation. Abs I’ve basically never stopped.

I am a atheist. I have zero doubts about there being anything extra. I also hate country music because I am a normal person. Jesus take the wheel by Carrie Underwood came on while I was driving. I had to pull over and it took 20 mins to recover. I’m not googling the lyrics but if you fancy a blurb go ahead.

There's a verse of Once in Royal David's City I have to brace myself for.

Last night at a village carol service outdoors I was suddenly a little overcome by all the people coming out on a dark and wet night to show they still had hope and knew that light would come.

And I'm not a believer.

Away In A Manger is guaranteed to set me off, especially if sung by little kids at a Nativity play.

Ditto In The Bleak Midwinter, when sung by a proper choir.

First verse of Once in Royal David’s City, as sung by the King’s College boy chorister on Christmas Eve.

The Coventry Carol (sad minor key plus Herod and slaying) and the other one that mentions Herod - ‘All the little boys he killed at Beth’lem in his fuuuuuury.’

Op - please don't ever go to the Sistine chapel

I think you've found the solution already though. Your DS is now 4 and possibly susceptible to bribery. Pay him to sing a carol whenever he sees you. If you pick a different one each week, it'll harden you to them and by next year you'll be cured

You might twitch when you hear them after a year of torture but you probably won't cry with joy.

The only thing that gets me through Once in Royal David's City is the fact that it is worst vision of heaven I have ever encountered. "Where like stars, his children crowned, all in white shall wait around." I have no desire to be waiting around for eternity, I've waited around enough on earth, thank you.

Other than that though - total snotty mess, particularly this year as I am missing singing so much. We managed to have a choir practice between lockdowns and I couldn't sing a bloody word anyway as I was weeping so much - pathetic.

DS said in disgust the other day whilst we were watching Bake Off of all things "Mum, is there anything you don't cry at?" Ummmm, not really. In defence at the Bake Off wailing, I was just so happy for Peter that 2020 had a been a great year for someone!

I always cry at When a child is born. It really is a lovely carol and not one you hear all the time.
I never cry at Mary’s boy child Jesus Christ so I find it helps if this one is sung next so I can regain my composure

My daughter is 4 and since having her my god my emotions have been a mess! Get choked up at silly little things now, and Christmas carols are a big one.

I cried at Oh Christmas tree the other week and then envisioning what should've been for me and my OH this Christmas I cried at Driving home for Christmas the other night. I got an image in my mind of him driving across the country in his Truck then parking up in Depot and driving back home to me and our Baby on Xmas eve for our Baby's first Christmas. Maybe next year instead!!

You are not alone, OP. The older I get the worse it gets.

I cried at the end of Elf yesterday when James Caan finally joined in with the singing at the end 🤷🏻‍♀️ so I cannot help you!

@BigusBumus we brought DS home from hospital on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. We live next door to a church and at 11pm on Christmas Eve we were awake feeding DS and we heard the organ start up for Midnight carol service. We thought, well we’re up, why don’t we go? So we bundled up DS and went to the service - sitting there in the dark listening to the carols with our angelic little bundle was just overwhelming. And I think when we went to take communion and have DS blessed by the priest most of the congregation lost their marbles too - I didn’t realise how uncommon it was to see 6 day old babies out and about, especially on Christmas Eve in a church! Plus his workaday John Lewis all white onesie looked positively and unintentionally beatific

Oh, I’ve found my people. It’s absurd, I used to be completely stone cold poker face to everything when I was younger. Yesterday I was reading Harry Potter to DD and it was the bit in book 3 where Wood FINALLY wins the Quidditch cup and my voice was breaking reading it. DD is going to catch on soon that her mother now cries at basically everything. Christmas is one big tear-fest for me!

But I have been to the Sistine Chapel and kept my cool, so things could be worse.

The BBC seem hell bent on making us cry every morning on their Breakfast program and have been since apx August. I am learning to toughen up. But I am a crier. I cry watching the London marathon, i cry when choosing birthday cards - reading the words, and i cry at kids singing anything (tricky as a TA for 8 years).

I'll often be belting out a song along to the radio in the car when suddenly i get all choked up and can't go on

I cried in the Anne Frank House at the sheer ordinariness of her bedroom but I suppose that's completely different.

Thank god it's not just me! Thanks for this op. IRL I'm know as a bit of a hard nut to crack but carols do it every time!