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{"id":2540,"date":"2014-12-22T16:07:03","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T21:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/?p=2540"},"modified":"2014-12-22T16:07:30","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T21:07:30","slug":"you-could-go-christmas-caroling-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/you-could-go-christmas-caroling-tonight\/","title":{"rendered":"You Could Go Christmas Caroling Tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Tonight, you could go Christmas caroling.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need an official group. \u00a0You don\u2019t need an appointment. You don\u2019t need props. \u00a0You don\u2019t even need flashlights and song books<\/a>, if you\u2019re willing to be humble and just sing first verses, which is about all that people standing in the door want to hear, anyway.<\/p>\n

Gather together some friends, go ring on likely doorbells, and break into song.<\/p>\n

A verse or two of whichever carols you happen know, then, \u201cWe Wish You a Merry Christmas,\u201d and on to the next door.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all.<\/p>\n

You could do that.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

You know those documentaries about quaint foreign cultures, where the natives teach their children their traditional songs, and they have festivals and they sing those songs?<\/p>\n

We have songs. \u00a0We have traditional songs for this time of year. \u00a0If we sing them, our children will learn them. \u00a0We have traditional festive practices, like going out caroling. \u00a0We can be those native people, doing our thing, not letting our culture die off, even now that all the villages have TV.<\/p>\n

Since we are a pluralistic culture, we can use clues like, \u201cWhat kind of decorations have my neighbors put on their door, if any?\u201d to guess what kind of songs, if any, will be appreciated. \u00a0Since we are an atomized, fragmented, un-neighborly culture, it\u2019s unlikely anyone will even recognize you. Shyness is no excuse.<\/p>\n

Go sing. \u00a0You\u2019ll be glad you did it, and other people will be thankful you remembered them this year, when maybe no one else in the whole world did.<\/p>\n