As I was in Bath this year, I looked for some local door-to-door carol singing to join in but didn’t find any. It’s less common in urban areas than in villages, and in central Bath there is the problem that many buildings are divided into flats; which doorbell do you ring? I know that some happened in Widcombe this year, and there have been carol singers from St Mary’s Bathwick in the past. I decided to organise some of my own, and four of us spent an hour going round Sion Hill, which seemed promising territory with nice views into the bargain. We raised about £50 for MSF’s work treating the Ebola outbreak.
When I’ve done this out in a village, and there’s been someone in, it’s got one of two reactions: either the occupants ignore you, or they open the door, hear you sing and then contribute to your good cause. In Bath you sometimes get a third one; the occupant appears, drops some money in the collection, then gradually shuts the door on you before you have finished singing. This tends to result in a truncated carol as there’s no point in finishing it.