To ask if anyone’s had carol singers this year ?

[Jumell]

And if so, how many ?

in 1982 a group of us went carol singing and raised some money for the children’s ward at the local hospital. Just before Xmas, a few of us in the group actually visited the ward to give them the money we’d raised.

it seems like a different era now

.SIGHHHHHH

That sounds lovely 😊

and the WhatsApp seems like a 2024 take on traditional carolling

Yes it’s a bit like when in work people crowd round your table singing Happy Birthday 🎂to you

Often people request a favourite carol and then join in!

This sounds so nice - I love this kind of thing ❤️

I'm in two choirs and a band.

This time of year is insanely busy as we do carolling for all three!

The band is usually booked to play carols at Christmas markets - both the kind you pay to get in and the kind where it's at a garden centre or wherever. We also play in our town centre - this needs a music licence.

Both choirs sing at shopping malls - we get invited as it adds to the Christmas atmosphere. My little local village one also sings at local pubs, campfire carols outside the church etc.

You can raise hundreds for charity in a morning carolling in a busy place.

Door to door doesn't raise much money.

But Halloween is ONE night, between the hours of 4pm and 8pm, roughly. That's totally different from one or more people turning up at your door randomly in - you hope - December.

I had "carol singers" once. It was two lads about 10 or 11, and they launched into We Wish You A Merry Christmas the moment I opened the door. They were already holding out their money collecting bowl while repeating We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year" over and over, like they didn't know any other words.

I'm afraid the 'tism struck my appalled self and I couldn't cope with it, just mumbled "Sorry" and closed the door quickly. (Possibly if I wasn't autistic I could have managed more appropriately but it was after work and I was too tired, I just panicked.)

Not had any to the house in years

I do go and carol sing at various care homes though with a couple of different groups and it's wonderful

The way they join in when they recognise the carols is fabulous - it starts my Christmas off properly

How many more posts are you going to make about how much better everything was in the 1980s?

I can't ever remember having carol singers come round, even when I was a kid in the 80s.

The reason hardly anyone does it is because going door to door asking for cash is a really ineffective way to raise money. Much better to sing as a choir in a town centre on a Saturday and get donations that way.

Not seen any since the 90s!

Not sure how I'd feel about random Carol singers turning up tbh, I usually don't have cash these days as I just use my card, and standing there listening to them seems awkward

Oh God yes. My Dad did this too and made them sing a whole carol before handing over any money, otherwise you would just hear Hark the Herald Angels....and they would be on to the next house.

Not yet

Usually get a few teen lads just singing the first line of a few carols - badly and they want money.

Get lost

Talking early 90s here. As a Guide, we did carol singing over three nights - each day in a different part of the village.

We sang on street corners, middle of cul de sacs etc.

Same.

We're going Carol singing on Thursday. We don't knock on doors, but stand in various places around the parish. We get loads of open windows, a handful of people who come out and join us and lots of thanks.
I don't think we collect money either.

And we end up in the local pub singing with whoever is there. That's prearranged with the landlord!

I had a group of kids come carol singing where I used to live - it was about 2009 I think. The year, not the amount of kids!

Not seen any since.

Haven’t had them at the house since the 80s but there are sometimes singers in Tescos. The other night it was a group of Beavers. Very cute.

I've never seen them in my life.

No thank goodness!! It sounds so awkward and I don’t keep any cash.

I had two teenage lads this evening, they called a few days ago and started singing jingle bells, badly I might add. I told them sorry I had no change which I didn't, they came back tonight again and sang the same song forgot the words midway through I gave them 2e and they went off on their way 😂

Excellent!! 🤣

I go carol singing every year, but we sing in town centres / pubs / shopping centres where there are more people passing. It is FAR more efficient for collecting money for the charity than going door to door.

I've not done that since the mid 1980s. It wasn't very time: money efficient even then, but now with all the MNers who wouldn't even open their doors, let alone have any change to give, it's just not worth the time it takes.

I've never seen any in my 15yrs of living here, then last week DP had just come from work and was halfway into the shower when he heard a knocking at the door. Peeked out the bedroom window to see carollers stood on the front path! Wish we had had flyers through the letterbox or posted up around, so we could have been home and prepared, I was so disappointed to have missed them.

Mumsnet is full of people who won't open the door to family if they're unexpected.

It's not surprising that people who want to sing carols to raise money don't think it's worth going door-to-door.

I don't think I've ever seen them coming door to door. Surely it would be wasteful of their voices, singing the same brief excerpt of a song from one house to the next? And quite tedious unless the homes were far apart as the neighbours would just hear it too much.
Much better to just do it in a public thoroughfare and get donations from all the passersby.

I remember watching the carol singers and salvation army band from our window as a child - they'd gather under the lamppost across the road, and it would seem quite magical to me especially if it was snowing, with the flakes shining in the night. That would have been mid-late 80s in a suburban area. Not seen any more recently.