Putting together the calendars for Activate! over the last several years has resulted in me knowing
about all sorts of random named days. One has always stuck with me, and this
year I decided to take action: in case you didn’t know, December 20 is Go
Caroling Day. I am not sure who came up with this date or day, but I do think
it is a tradition worth honoring.
So, this year, I’ve asked some families in my school
community if they would like to join my family for an hour or so of caroling. While
I was a bit hesitant to put myself out there, I had immediate responses from
three families interested in spreading some holiday cheer.
Of course, once I had others willing to join me, I had to
start thinking about some logistics. Most of the families consist of young
children, so I want to make sure this event is fun and easy for them. To that
end, I’ve selected a few very simple carols, and we will only be singing a
verse or two at most. My plan is that we will sing no more than three songs at
any one house. I will also be sending the songs and karaoke tracks to the
families ahead of time and will encourage them to spend a few minutes preparing
for the night.
I also don’t want the group to be too big. If we get a few
more families, I will probably see if I can find another leader and split us
into troupes.
Finally, we will need to settle on a location and time.
Right now, I am planning no more than one hour, as it will be very cold and
dark. We will likely go to whoever’s neighborhood is most highly represented or
the best maintained (sidewalks, lights, safe). And, of course, I will pick up a
big box of hot chocolate from a local coffee shop and throw some cups in my
backpack!
As I mentioned, I will have lyric sheets and karaoke tracks
(just to help fill in some sound since this is really a spur of the moment type
of thing). We’ll upload the karaoke tracks to the cloud and play them using our
Bose Soundlink Mini. (My husband is not much of a singer, so this will be his
job!) I am blessed to have a pretty amazing collection of incredibly talented
and resourceful folks willing to help me out in all my (crazy) endeavors! And,
in the spirit of the day, we’re sharing these resources with you in hopes that
you also revive the tradition of caroling this year! If you do, please share
your experiences and photos with us!
To download the lyric sheets and karaoke tracks, visit our website:
Look for the following files:
-Lyrics for caroling
-Caroling Tracks
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Jeanette attended Ithaca College, majoring in Music
Education with voice as her primary instrument. While at Ithaca, she performed
with the Women's Chorale under the direction of Janet Galván and was a founding
member of the college's first women's a cappella group. She completed her
Master of Education degree from Wayne State University while teaching
elementary music in L'Anse Creuse Public Schools. In her more than eight years
of teaching elementary music education, Jeanette was the writer and recipient
of several educational grants, director of after school music clubs, and one of
the directors in a district-wide choir. She has also taught Elementary Music
Education: Methods and Assessments as an adjunct professor at Rochester
Community College in Rochester Hills, Michigan. In 2008, Jeanette became editor
of Activate!, a magazine for music
educators, and in 2009, she accepted the position of Classroom Resources Editor
for Heritage Music Press.
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