Tuesday, December 20, 2016

From the readers: Yes, people still go caroling in 2016


Three years ago, I wrote about an old "Carols for Christmas" pamphlet published by The Prudential Insurance Company of America. And I asked the question: "Do people still go caroling?" The quick answer, based upon a whirlwind of Google searches, was that caroling, though not as common as it once was, definitely still happens.

This week, an anonymous reader added a new comment on that 2013 post, further reassuring us that caroling is still alive and well:
YES! Folks still get together and go out caroling at Christmas time. One small troupe has been doing this in East Rutherford, New Jersey, EVERY December 23rd since the 1980s.

The friends are mostly past members of the Stevens Institute of Technology Glee Club. They were inspired to do this in honor of the founder and director of the Stevens Glee Club — Professor William F. Ondrick. Each year he would have the Glee Club perform an evening of Christmas songs on campus, complete with sing along. Then later he would host a Christmas party for the students, somehow making room for everyone in his home.

Everyone looked forward to those hours of song, fun and food.

In that same spirit we gather each December 23rd at the home of Connie and Joe DeFazio in East Rutherford. (Both were members of the Glee Club and Connie, being an accomplished Music Teacher and Choir Director in her own right, took over the reins of directing the Glee Club when Professor Ondrick retired.) The group tours the neighborhood singing the songs featured in that Prudential Insurance Pamphlet — in four-part harmony of course!
What a wonderful story and piece of Stevens Institute history. Thank you so much for sharing!

Any other active carolers out there with stories to share?

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