Putting together the calendars for Activate! over the last several years has resulted in me knowing
about all sorts of random named days. One such day is "Go Caroling Day," which is celebrated this Saturday, Dec. 20. I am not sure who came up with this date or day, but I do think
it is a tradition worth honoring.
Last year, I asked some families in my school community if they would like to join my family for an hour or so of caroling and have decided to do so again this year. While I was a bit hesitant to put myself out there, I had immediate responses from three families interested in spreading some holiday cheer and we had a wonderful time caroling together!
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. Finally, we will need to settle on a location and time. Right now, I am planning on singing for no more than one hour, as it will most likely be very cold and dark. We will likely go to whichever neighborhood is most highly represented or the most well maintained (sidewalks, lights, safe, etc.). And, of course, I will once again pick up a big box of hot chocolate from a local coffee shop and throw some cups in my backpack (because the caroling experience just wouldn't be complete without a little cocoa!).
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 and of the season, we’re sharing these resources with you in hopes that you will join us in our efforts to help revive the tradition of caroling this year! Please feel free to share your experiences and photos with us (email us at social@lorenz.com). We'd love to hear from you, and you may even be featured on the Heritage Music Press Facebook page!
To download the lyric sheets and karaoke tracks, please visit our website:
The files can be found within the following folders:
-Caroling Lyrics
-Caroling Tracks
Happy caroling!!
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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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