A few days before Christmas I did something I haven’t done before: joined the Chandos Singers for carol-singing at Bath’s Green Park Station (for non-Bathonians, this is a former railway terminus which now houses shops and a brasserie). One of the rules about open-air singing (which this sort of was) is that anything very noisy which could happen nearby chooses that moment to do so. In this case it was the brasserie behind us choosing to dismantle a marquee. We ran through our seasonal sequence from the most recent concert and a fair chunk of the anniversary volume, Carols for Choirs 1, then after refreshing ourselves with mince pies and mulled wine, we repeated our set. We collected money for a local charity, with older people and young women being most likely to contribute, though all sorts of people did so.
On Christmas Eve it was the usual village carol singing round the houses. We had a large group this year, probably because of the mild weather. And something which has never happened before: a descant (to O Come, All ye Faithful). A bit of a challenge as, contrary to the usual way of things, pitches were on the high side.