Things I'm looking forward to 3

Something else I remember about Christmas back home was carolling around the homes and hotels in Sitiawan with the church youth group. The run up to Christmas would be filled with morning practices - normally preceded by a coffeeshop breakfast as school holidays had begun. Bass, tenor, alto and soprano singers would be magically discovered within each batch of secondary school students, many of us not having any musical knowledge haphazardly separated by a pianist trying out our individual pitches.

Once slotted into our groups, we'd break up and learn the parts from indivisual songsheets with either a pianist or guitarist showing each group the melody. It was an exercise in memory as we'd learn the bassline, for example, down by heart and try to exorcise all memory of the actual melody of the song. An exercise that invariably broke down when all the groups regathered to try out the 4-part harmony together as the soprano singers (who always seemed to be the most numerous) ended up dragging everyone into their melody.

There were the staples from the Methodist Hymnal: Joy To The World, Silent Night (both of whom had their distinctive guitar intros that were reused year after year), We Wish You A Merry Christmas, which would invariably be sung repeatedly in an ever-faster tempo, O Come All Ye Faithful, Hark The Herald Angels Sing and Angels We Have Heard On High. On occasion, someone would produce new songs and arrangements, which after a year or two, became staples of their own.

While the practices were going on, the youth group committee would be gathering invitations from homes (mainly church members) to which we would then go on the nights of the 24th and 25th. On the nights themselves, we'd start off at Pastor's manse - always as a dry run where mistakes would be giggled at. After a final prayer, we'd split into 2 groups to cover more ground. And as the night went on, the singing became more and more boisterous as people grew more tired. The climax would normally occur at a house where both groups planned to meet up at - the singing would then increase exponentially in volume as both the musicians and singers doubled in volume and soloists found themselves dueting instead.

The real challenge of course, was waking up for Christmas morning service in church after a late night carol session on the 24th!