to have shouted at carol singers

[AuroraB]

so, i'm walking home from mil's house in the dark, with ds who is 6 months old and has had a scarily bad cold for the last week (perhaps a touch of the PFB's but hell, i've not seen such a thing before), not much sleeping going on, awful lot of snot, really quite ill etc - i am feeling fraught.

i can see from one end of the long road a group of carol singers baging on my door, they give it a good few bangs, despite there being no lights on, by the time i arrive they have gone around the corner to a different street, hurrah i think, i've missed the latest load of seasonal beggars.

i go in, carefully unpack, ill, sleeping ds, feed dog and BANG BANG BANG, split second passes BANG BANG BANG again and thrice BANG BANG BANG, dog goes mental (as dogs do, she can only take one or two bang bangs) ds starts screaming (as ds's do when rudely awakened by mental dog), i open door and venomously spit out 'please stop banging on my door i have a mental dog and a sleeping baby' and slam door in carol singers sweet, innocent, seasonal goodwill wishing faces.

now i'm consumed with guilt that i have scared kids and put them off xmas, but a bit of me does think they shouldn't be out banging on strangers doors at 8 in the evening and effectively asking for money. am i a grinch? was I UR? (oh and i didn't have any money anyway and i don't think a tangerine was what they were after)

Welcome caketinrosie Always nice to have another curmudgeon onboard

sooooo not a grinch. i too had a run in with carol singers although these were just two kids who every night this week have knocked on my door, lounge window, dinningroom window all at 8:30pm all because for two nights in a row my dh gave them £2. they even turned up on the way home from the chippy last night. grrrrrr

People seem to expect something for their singing rather than doing it to please the listeners.
We went out with the church to sing carols and GIVE chocolates to people. There were some in our group who were really good and tbh it did sound beautiful. We stayed in one place for a bit and knocked on doors to offer them a choice from a roses tin. People aren't used to being offered instead of asked and so we ended up with lots of people swearing at us before we had a chance to explain. In the end I poked some chocs through the letter boxes with a little leaflet saying we were doing it for FREE. Some people who tried to offer us money and couldn't understand us refusing it.
YANBU i think.

YANBU. We had some the other evening at about 8pm too. They were teenage girls who sang rather nicely, but I was struggling to stop two dogs from -eating-- running out to greet them, as well as a three year old who wanted to go outside to skid on the ice. I just shouted, 'Mr Chillo, deal with this please', to which he stood in the doorway and looked in his pocket for money, and found there was none. The carol singers finished Silent Night, went quiet for a second and then started another one. Bloody cheek, I thought. I dug £1 out from my coat pocket, fought my way past barking dogs, then DH who was clutching on to DS and thrust the coin into the hand of one of them.

If any more come, I shall not open the door. I felt like I was being forced to give them money.

Sorry for that rant, I'm not feeling Bah Humbug at all, but they came at the wrong time and expected cash.

You are being ridiculously unreasonable!

You're supposed to give them some Figgy Pudding

And they're not supposed to go until they get some

...

YANBU

1. Don't carol singers usually sing at least one carol before knocking on your door?

1. They should on come on Xmas eve

1. They should come before 7pm

Actually traditionally are carol singers meant to knock or are they to presume if you don't come out during their first carol they are to piss off?

My nan just said that when she was little it was traditional to take a bowl of mulled wine, ale or cider around with them and sweets for the children. In return people gave them drink, money and festive food. It was supposed to bring good luck for the year to come.