O'Little Town of Bethlehem, or whatever

Last Sunday night we finished off our weekend at a “Carol Service”. Apparently this is a British tradition. You go to church and hear nine different readings from the bible leading up to the birth of Christ, interspersed with a hymn and a Christmas Carol. They have these services the Sunday immediately before Christmas (unless Christmas falls on a Sunday or Monday). It was pretty interesting. We were invited to attend by a work colleague of Chizz. His wife is the priest in charge at this particular church. It was a lovely service. For a good portion of the night, all of the parishioners held lit candles. It was beautiful and we managed not to light anything or anyone on fire. The parishioners really got into the service and sang the carols with gusto. There are a lot of Christmas Carols that I had never heard of – “Out of Your Sleep” , “What Sweeter Music” and “Sussex Carol” to name a few. I was getting discouraged perusing the program. I hardly knew any of the songs. Wait, here was one I knew and I liked it “O, Little Town of Bethlehem”. I was excited and I started to sing, when I realized the tune was completely different. The words the same but the music was strange. Another thing I noticed, when I did know the song there were verses I had never seen before. Maybe in the US we get the abridged version of carols so we don’t lose interest, like we have Christmas Carol ADD. I didn’t know any carols had more than 4 verses. According to the program last night, “O Come All Ye Faithful” has 7 verses, 4 of which I am sure I have never heard before. We in the U.S. have been subjected to Carols lite. Rise up!!

After the service, we went back to the vicarage where the priest and her husband, Chizz’s work colleague live. About 15 people were invited back for a bite to eat. We had a great dinner and some even better mulled wine. Kiki & Snake were the only young people there and they represented well. They managed small talk and helped the host clear the dinner plates and serve coffee. We are hoping to hire them out during the holiday season for some extra cash.

It was the first time we were invited to a completely British function. We were the only Americans there. I think we did pretty well, we managed not to put our foots in our mouths or cause any international incidents. Although I did point out that they had the tune to O’Little Town of Bethlehem wrong. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.