By Olga Peña
Killeen Daily Herald

It's the picture of Christmas – rosy red cheeks, bonnets, sheet music, perfect harmony and a few "fa, la, la, la, las" in the middle of a crowded neighborhood with "busy sidewalks dressed in holiday style."

But the picture is outdated.

These days you're more likely to get a "Season's Greetings" text message, Facebook post or, if you're lucky, a singing holiday card than carolers stopping on your doorstep.

Such has been the evolution – or de-evolution – of caroling.

"Currently, I think, people look at caroling as a traditional older practice. It's gone out of 'vogue' in recent years and is looked upon as novelty rather than common practice," said George Stansbury, professor of church music and worship at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton. "But interestingly enough, since it's become a novelty, people are even more interested in it."

Some groups, in schools, colleges and churches, and musicians are committed to keeping the holiday tradition alive and providing the kind of "novelty" entertainment to which Stansbury refers.

Melinda Wright has been taking Clear Creek Elementary School students caroling for eight years.

"It brings a lot of joy to other people and makes students feel good about themselves because they can tell people are enjoying it," said Wright, who is currently a science coach and has been at the school

for 18 years. "It makes them feel like they are making a difference and keeping the tradition going ... keeping the songs moving along instead of dying."

Tradition

The tradition of caroling dates back as early as the 13th century and transitioned from churches to the streets in the late 18th century.

The carols in Midieval times originated regionally by language – French, German, Danish, the Netherlands, Stansbury said. "But as we understand it here in America, it really formalized in England. We are the inheritors of English carols that solidified in the late 18th and 19th centuries."

Those are the songs Wright and many choir directors teach students who perform the historic music.

Wright said students are taught the traditional carols with a mix of modern Christmas songs. "This is an important part of music education and the carols are telling a story," Wright said.

Besides the long history involved in preserving "Here We Come A-Wassailing" and other such a capella, four-part harmonic ditties, caroling is reminiscent of more recent American history.

Recalling such bygone days are at the center of people going to caroling parades or watching chorale and chamber groups perform in big cities, sometimes sporting period garb.

Wright said when the students perform, passers-by usually take pictures and some have even joined them in singing.

"For a lot of people it's something they grew up with," Wright said. "It brings back good memories."

Popularity declines

But traditional singing in the neighborhood has somewhat slipped away, said Stansbury, with the exception of church groups, perhaps. It's not as popular as 30 years ago in America, he said.

Stansbury worked as a minister of music in churches and would always encourage and teach the carols they practiced, prepared and performed in the neighborhoods each Christmas.

Wright, too, remembers caroling in the traditional sense.

"When I was little, we used to go caroling with the Girl Scouts ... going through the neighborhood and stopping at houses so I enjoy now seeing that with the children," Wright said.

Though her students, she said, don't seem to be familiarized with such caroling, she introduced the experience by taking them to local nursing homes, where they go up and down each hallway, caroling along.

Stansbury, too, has led students at the university to carol, including performing at the annual Salado Christmas Stroll.

He thinks it's very important to keep the caroling tradition alive and is impressed that young people are very interested in preserving such history and learning more about "ancient" times.

"This current generation has a renewed interest in things ancient and old and they want to connect to the past," Stansbury said. "Curiously enough, a lot are most interested in the distant past."

Caroling offers just that – a link to the distant past – set to music.

Contact Olga Peña at opena@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7541.

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