AIBU to think that teenagers carol singing are just begging

[Norudeshitrequired]

2 teenagers knocked on my door this evening and started singing a Christmas carol when I opened the door. I immediately sent them away.
These girls were dressed in very fashionable clothes and I don't think for one minute that they were trying to raise money to feed themselves. I think they were just after extorting some cash from the local residents.
What would you have done in this situation?
Personally, I think it is just begging and that nobody should give money to teenagers who are knocking on the doors of random strangers. We have a lot of elderly people living alone in the area and these two girls would be bigger, physically, than a lot of the elderly people and might come across as very intimidating.

[Norudeshitrequired]

Why did they need to knock the door at all? That's really rude, collecting for charity or not. People should be free to enjoy their homes without interruption.

Yes, that was my main annoyance. Like I said earlier, I send anyone away who knocks on my door collecting for charity or trying to sell something. I get even more annoyed when people knock trying to sell something (or collect donations) late in the evening. It's late, my kids might be asleep, I just want to relax.

bumpngrind I don't have a very different attitude towards Halloween. I always get lots of sweets in for the neighbours children as everyone in my street knows each other quite well and only the little children go trick or treating. I give to other little children too who knock on Halloween as I can see that they are just doing it for the fun element. But I don't give sweets to teenagers who come around wearing a mask from the poundshop as they have made no effort and experience has taught me that they take a huge handful of sweets each (leaving none god anybody else) whereas the little children have to be encouraged to take more than one sweet.
Likewise, a couple of teenagers singing 'we wish you a merry Christmas' very badly late in the evening with no Christmas type costume or a bit of tinsel or a carol sheet with proper songs to sing suggests to me that they have suddenly decided they need some fag / Booze money and have just traipsed around to get money from strangers.

I'm just BAH HUMBUG!

[SatinSandals]

If they didn't knock on the door they would be ignored so the whole thing would be pointless. The Lion's Club came around with their sleigh and FC and carols last night- of course they knocked in every door- the aim was to collect money! My household is long past wanting to see FC on a cold, wet night so I dare say that had they not come to the door I would have ignored them.

[schokolade]

Out of interest, why do teenager carol singers specifically annoy you Norudeshit? Would it be acceptable if it had been pre-teens or 20+ year olds?

I also hate people knocking on my door but do feel a bit sorry for teenagers. Everyone seems to be at them all the time.

[SatinSandals]

I don't think it is the fact that they are teenagers- it is the fact they go without knowing any carols!
Same as Halloween, they turn up late with a couple of masks and a black bin bag between them!

[SatinSandals]

Any teenager, with good voice, who can sing all verses of something like 'In the Bleak Mid Winter' would get a good reception from me. So far, out of all the years, I have had, We Wish you a Merry Christmas' , Jingle Bells and, if pushed, Away in a Manger, first verse. Quite why you want to be disturbed for that beats me!

[superstarheartbreaker]

How do we all know they would spend the money on booze...and who cares if they do anyway? The op is a bit bah hum bag methinks.

[wonkylegs]

I know some people who do this but I'm guessing because they are in their 70's they'd be more acceptable.
Tis the season to be jolly and all that.

[Norudeshitrequired]

Satinsandals has it spot on - it wouldn't have mattered what age they were, it's the fact that they want money for very little effort. It's exactly the same as the teenagers who turn up wearing a poundland mask (I send them packing too).
If two 20+ year olds had turned up singing 'we wish you a merry Christmas' late in the evening, looking like Jo effort has been made they would have been sent packing too.

The lions club with their sleigh would have been different because they have made a real effort and are a recognised charity. Although I do prefer to give to the lions / rotary club when they have their sleigh at the local supermarket because I really dislike people harassing me for money on my doorstep.

[Greenkit]

A certificate is required for any person or persons wishing to hold a street collection in conjunction with the singing or playing of Christmas carols.

Such collections are only permitted to take place in the City of London between 1 and 24 December each year. Applications must be made no later than the first day of November.

Application form and guidance notes

Download application form for carol singing 43kb
Download applicant guidance notes 34kb
Download collection return sheet 54kb
Download City of London regulations for carol singing 83kb
Download City of London regulations for street collections 125kb

Applicants who have not previously held a collection in the City of London are required to forward literature regarding the aims and objectives of the charity or fund, together with the last accounts of a carols collection in another area (if applicable) and the organisation's current annual report.

Applicants not directly employed by the benefiting Charity/Fund must provide an authorisation letter from the relevant organisation giving them permission to organise a carol collection on their behalf within the City of London on the dates nominated.


In that case, I guess other councils may feel the same

[msvee]

I wouldn't have even opened the door.

[snowed]

We had some teenagers knocking a few years ago, and they could only sing the first line of a couple of carols and then they petered out! Not a lot of effort there then, and they weren't collecting for charity, just themselves.

[msvee]

When we were young carol singing money would buy Christmas presents for my family. Over three nights id get around thirty quid.

[TeacupDrama]

that is if you want to set up in town centre not if you want to go round the houses

[struggling100]

"Foggier yet, and colder. Piercing, searching, biting cold. If the good Saint Dunstan had but nipped the Evil Spirit’s nose with a touch of such weather as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose. The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge’s keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of

“God bless you, merry gentleman!
May nothing you dismay!”

Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost."

[HenriettaMaria]

Blimey, what price Christmas cheer? The season of good will certainly is alive and well on MN.

We hardly ever get carol singers around here but I wouldn't turn them away with nothing if they did come round. We used to go carol singing when we were younger and people would give us money, or not, as they chose.

Mind you, we didn't think Jingle Bells or Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer were carols...

[ShatnersBassoon]

A group of elderly beggars from the church come to our door every year, being all jolly and rattling their tin. I tell them to piss off and stop intimidating me in my own home.

I give them a quid and try not to let them see the tear in my eye actually. There's begging, and there's performing for donations. Carol singing is traditional, but you can't expect a couple of teenagers to dress up in Dickensian stuff just to give a 'safer' image. You don't have to give them anything, but it seems unfair to accuse a couple of girls of being up to no good just because they had their tracksuits on!

[Swanbridge]

I think my mother is on here. She was a teacher at our local secondary, so some poor unsuspecting teenager would knock at our door to sing (they thought) one verse of We Wish You a Merry Christmas; the door would be opened by the much-hated Mrs Martinet and she'd insist on them singing several verses of a proper carol before she'd give them any change.

Funnily enough word got around, we never had more than one or two carol singers and our Trick or Treaters dropped off dramatically too.

[poshme]

I used to carol sing with 3 friends in town. In 4 part harmony. Was quite lucrative. No-one complained at all.

[SugarMiceInTheRain]

I wouldn't mind if they could actually sing My friends and I used to go round carol singing (aged 14/15) and raised about £30 a time for Challengers (a local charity supporting children with SN) which some of us volunteered for at weekends. Far from begging.

[BumpNGrind]

I'd be happy for Christmas carols to be sung at my door, it's a tradition I love, along with the Salvation Army brass bands at Christmas.

[snowed]

We used to go carol singing when we were younger and people would give us money, or not, as they chose.

I'm guessing you smiled, talked politely and could sing in tune and more than the first line of each carol Henrietta?

[SomethingkindaOod]

We get this a lot, they tend to start with we wish you a merry christmas then I ask them if they know anything else. Usually they can do at least a verse of one of the traditional carols and they get some change. And occasionally a mince pie
But I love seeing children/teens using their initiative. My DS and some of his friends did some shopping for the elderly residents when we had bad snow earlier this year. The same 'hoodies' that get slagged off on our local FB page have been seen clearing people's paths! the residents tend to insist that they take a pound or so in return, and at Halloween they go out ToTing, the costumes are amazing. I detest this attitude of teenagers=thugs that gets thrown around all the time. None of them are perfect but assuming that they are going out and immediately intimidating people is wrong.
And of course it's begging! All carol singing is begging whether it's done by a church group with collecting tins or a bunch of cold teens wearing clothes with hoods!

[HenriettaMaria]

I'm guessing you smiled, talked politely and could sing in tune and more than the first line of each carol

I guess so (it was a long time ago .

I do regret that so few young people - including my own offspring - actually know all the words to any carol these days. And if I was to call one of my kids and ask them to sing a Christmas carol, he or she would be more than likely to launch in to Jingle Bells or something.

I just think most kids are ok and that it's a shame that they often get a bad press and/or are treated with suspicion, or even hostility, when they are indulging in average, innocuous activities such as carol singing.

[LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726]

I wish that posters who don't agree with the OP/myself and other people who've said they don't like this weren't dismissed as some kind of 'Scrooges'. Firstly, it's unkind - secondly, it's inaccurate. I quietly get on with giving to the charities of my choice every single year, without fanfare.

It's not really about 'teens' either. You wouldn't really have toddlers and primary school aged children rocking up to knock on doors for money. If they did however, I'm sure they'd make more effort because from my experience, young children like to give it their 'all' and it's that which makes their efforts endearing. They attract 'givers' when they're in public because they're part of a group, performing and actually, not door-knocking, which many people hate for a variety of reasons.

When was the last time you saw a 'teen', old or young, performing in a group in public, carol singing in town to raise for charity? I haven't - not in recent years anyway. That's fine but WHY do some teens think they have the right to knock on doors? Where is their Christmas spirit, hmm? It's no kind of performance and it's i-n-t-r-u-s-i-v-e. Some people might not mind but there are many who do and we have to put up with the interruption just the same... a bit like cold-callers.

To the parents of said teens who think they are perfectly entitled to 'perform' by door-knocking and screeching/warbling the wrong words to a badly thought out medley of 'tunes' - give your children money YOURSELF. These are YOUR children, not ours.

Lastly, I suppose we all use our own reference points. I spent a good amount of time when I last worked for a council, working with the elderly and imploring them NOT to answer the door as willingly as they seemed to do. It's not that YOUR children are going to cosh them over the head but by frequenting and normalising 'door-knocking' for no legitimate reason, they are, unwittingly, setting up the vulnerable quite nicely for attacks by thugs and thieves who have no conscience about people in society.

[AMuppetChristmasCorral]

I really miss carol singing, and carol singers.

I grew up in a fairly small community, where it was pretty common practice - my friends and I used to put on some smart clothes and tinsel and sing traditional carols in four part harmony. I used to love the surprised looks on people's faces when I hit the high note in the descant of Hark the Herald There would be groups of small children with their parents singing Little Donkey and Away in a Manger, and some family groups.

It was generally accepted that if you had a bucket you were collecting money for charity, if you didn't it was just spreading Christmas cheer. We used to alternate, charity one year, fun the next.

It was lovely, and a really great way of keeping the community close. People who didn't want carollers generally put a little sign on the door/window so you knew not to call there. Nobody up here seems to do it though; in the five years I've lived here we haven't had a single one