Christmas Mood

I've been in a serious Christmas mood lately. I can't get enough Christmas music, and I love walking through the city centre and seeing all the Christmas lights. At Chatsworth House last weekend I saw beautiful Christmas trees and decorations. And to finish off my weekend, yesterday I went to "Carols for Christmas" at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford upon Avon. This was a carol service jointly put on by the Rotary district that I'm in (District 1060) and the local Inner Wheel District. I was so excited to get a chance to attend a carol service, mainly because a church I used to attend back home used to sing Christmas carols every Sunday of Advent- and I was really missing that!


If you don't know, Holy Trinity Church in Stratford is where you'll find William Shakespeare's grave. It's a beautiful church, dating back to 1210. There were several readings and several carols, and I was excited to see several familiar songs. But I also saw some I'd never heard of before: "Once in Royal David's City", and "In the bleak midwinter." The familiar songs were "O little town of Bethlehem," "It came upon a midnight clear," "O come, all ye faithful," and "Hark! the herald angels sing."

Now, just because they are familiar to me doesn't mean that everything was entirely familiar! The tune to all but one of those songs was different than I'd ever heard! What a cultural experience. I'm not a good singer- I'll be the first to admit, but when it comes to Christmas carols I'm not terribly shy. I started singing, and, well, no one else was saying the words in the same way I was (and no, I don't mean accents!). Hahaha. It was a great experience, but I'll admit that once I got home, I did listen to a few of the songs again, with the tune that I'm familiar with. :-)