As Long As They're Still Reading (Christmas Comments 1)

Undeterred by the recent dearth of comments, I blog on. I’m just kidding you – while people are still reading, I’ll still keep blogging. And probably after they stop. But this post is the first of at least two with various Christmas thoughts, although most of them have not a lot to do with Christmas, so they’re just thoughts. And they are these:

1. Carolling
As all Salvationists know, December is the month for carolling. And I love it. It’s when I feel we’re really out there sharing with the people. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been out collecting or something and people have asked me where the Salvation Army band is. People love hearing it (despite what some people in the Army will tell you!) and it’s all good. We have nothing to be embarrassed about. Anyway, here’s a couple of photos from when the band went out carolling the other day.
My brother (the photo is a little shaky because I was only wearing one glove and it was freezing!)
Josh likes carolling.
Me, on the baritone this year (because off-beats are important too).

But carolling isn’t all about bands. Every year the Songsters (the choir) sings at a home for people with mental illness. To be honest, it isn’t the easiest gig in the world, but for every person that tells us exactly what they think of us (we were told to shove something up somewhere… I didn’t quite get it), there are others that just sit there listening to us sing/play (we take a small band with us), and you can see that some of them are really moved by what they hear. Some even sing along, remembering the words they perhaps used to sing as children.

Moreover, it’s important that the staff there know they’re not forgotten either. They do a fantastic job and it’s a privilege to share with them all.

2. Publication!
I had an exciting discovery when I saw that a phrasebook of which I wrote a chapter is available to pre-order on Amazon, so if you know anyone who’s going on a city break to Northern Europe…

3. O Holy Night
In my last post I mentioned the song ‘O Holy Night’ which is my all-time favourite Christmas song… And probably my favourite song of all time, in fact. Anyway, for me, no-one does this song better than Mariah Carey. I know it really won’t be to everyone’s taste, but the video is in the right-hand column. It takes a little while to get going, but it’s stunning. In my opinion.

4. The Blogosphere at Christmas
And finally, just to mention what else is going on in the blogosphere at the moment. Rather impressively, Glyn is posting a different Advent poem every day in the lead-up to Christmas (with some very good ones!), meaning that in December he’s blogged more than in June, July, August, September, October and November combined. But I’m well impressed. Katie has also posted two fantastic videos on her blog (Video 1 and Video 2). Check them out!