If you miss the strolling carolers who filled the night air with timeless Christmas songs like “Joy to the World” and non-secular favorites like “White Christmas,” a tradition once deeply embedded in American neighborhoods, you’re not alone.
We asked readers what Christmas traditions they’d like to revive for Block Talk, Patch’s exclusive neighborhood etiquette column, and caroling was a clear favorite.
“Carolers!” said T.B., a Nashua (New Hampshire) Patch reader. “No one does it anymore.” Oakland (California) Patch reader M. not only misses carolers but also “listeners being interested in listening.” Rhode Island Patch reader Lou misses caroling, too, but said most neighbors don’t know one another.
Two readers in Michigan, Novi Patch reader Connie and Plymouth-Canton Patch reader Kimi, said caroling was once a big part of their neighborhood holiday celebrations, but said the tradition has completely disappeared or is anemic at best. Even the holiday parties at the neighborhood association clubhouse have gone by the wayside, Connie said.
Those were the days, readers said.
Southampton (New York) Patch reader Stephanie fondly remembers Christmases past when carolers would meet at her house and then serenade the neighborhood. “After, we’d come back for pizza and hot chocolate,” she said.
“My father would put up miniature trains on a platform under the tree. It had many villages. He’d solder wires together and each village had its own streets, lights, house, cars etc.,” Stephanie recalled. “It would take days to put together. But once completed, It was purely magical.”
Temecula (California) Patch reader Christine said her family and community made a big deal out of Christmas.
“I remember caroling and decorating the house inside and out,” Christine said. “Baking started the day after Thanksgiving. I was an organist and Dad hung outdoor speakers so that I could play Christmas music each night. So many treasured memories.”
Among them: “There were five or six churches nearby. They all came together and did a living Nativity (complete with live animals). We would walk in the pageant every year.”
“I would love for caroling to be brought back, but I doubt it ever will be,” Charlestown (Rhode Island) Patch reader Spot said.
That doesn’t mean Spot and the neighbors keep to themselves during the holidays.
“We live in a great neighborhood, mostly, people exchange plates of cookies or something they make,” Spot said. “This year I have been sick, so I am giving chocolates.”
Holiday celebrations have become more family-centered and less community-focused over time. Needham (Massachusetts) Patch reader Dave said the disappearance of some neighborhood traditions shouldn’t be seen as a negative.
“Not everybody here celebrates Christmas,” Dave said. “Joyous though Christmas is, Jews are proud of our Hanukkah traditions, and others may be proud of Kwanzaa. Sometimes a Muslim holiday comes in at this season.”
Manchester (New Jersey) Patch reader Oceanpeg’s entire family takes part in a generations-long tradition of making “paintbrush cookies” — cookies decorated with a paint made of egg yolk, a bit with water and food coloring before they went into the oven — and other cookies decorated with icing and sprinkles.
“My mother started it off with us and wanted for us to pass it down to our kids and our grandkids,” Oceanpeg said. “It’s more fun than buying ready-made ones.”
They cut the raw dough into all kinds of shapes — Santas, sleighs and reindeer, Christmas trees, bells and other ornaments; and gingerbread people and other holiday icons. Some of the cookies are put on plates and tins for friends and guests. Others were slipped into cellophane bags and hung on the Christmas tree as ornaments.
“The fun is in not trying to duplicate them with the different colored icings and sprinkles of all kinds used in cake decorating,” Oceanpeg said. “A form of creative artwork for the kids with the cut-out holiday cookies. made by the adults and gift giving the homemade cookies.”
“My big Italian family would celebrate on Christmas Eve with a lot of food, drinks and we would open gifts that night, said Natick (Massachusetts) Patch reader Danielle. “Christmas Day, we would all celebrate with our mom, dad and kids opening gifts then going to my Nana and Papa’s and have another big meal and just show off our new toys or top gift.”
Today, holiday light displays are a big tradition in neighborhoods across America. Some are highly competitive in the Clark Griswold “Christmas Vacation” sense while others are understated.
“My favorite neighborhood Christmas tradition is setting out the luminary candles along the curb,” Newtown (Pennsylvania) Patch reader Isabella said. “It’s so beautiful to see the neighborhood lined with candles while looking at Christmas lights at night.”
Litchfield (Connecticut) Patch reader Donna lives in a small over-50 community establishing its own holiday traditions around Christmas and other holidays.
“We always have a Christmas brunch for everyone and the ladies have a Christmas swap with appetizers and desserts on another day. We have a great time,” Donna said.
Perry Hall (Maryland) Patch reader Glenn lives in a neighborhood that goes all out with light displays, which evokes a trove of memories from Christmases past.
“We used to travel to Pennsylvania and go from relative to visit and have ring bologna and cookies,” Glenn said. “We used to drive around to see the lights.”
Glenn also recalled visiting train gardens — elaborate miniature landscapes with electric trains — and building his own.
“I loved it when we first moved to Perry Hall, and our block party and block garage sales,” Glenn said.
“My dad was a rural mailman,” said Woodbury (Minnesota) Patch reader Junie. “Christmas was always the best time of the year because every customer on his route would give him a tray of treats. There would be a table in the corner of our kitchen covered in holiday goodies that were almost always homemade (aside from the obligatory Whitman’s Sampler).”
As much as she misses the tradition, “cookie trays are something that will likely not come back” due to the rise of food-based allergies and the busy lives of working parents, Junie said.
Christmas Eve is Illinois Patch reader Carla’s favorite day of the year, even though traditions have changed in the decades since she was a kid growing up on a farm “a couple of sections away from the nearest neighbor.”
“I got to be a town kid for a day and have all the fun other kids had,” Carla said.
It does sound like an animated Norman Rockwell painting.
“My uncle would bring his big Belgian draught horses to town and give free carriage rides. Santa would come to town. My sisters are several years older but remember Santa coming in on the noon train on Christmas Eve, but by the time I came along, he arrived at the park on a fire truck with the sirens blaring,” Carla recalled. “He handed out an orange and a peppermint cane every year. It never changed, whether it was 1950, 1960 or 1970, and I think the point was to remind us that our parents and grandparents got that if anything in their stockings and we should be grateful.
“We would meet at the church at twilight for Vespers, then go home and have oyster stew. Anyone who didn’t have a place to go was invited. I’d give anything for a bowl of Mama’s oyster stew. Probably a lot of people in my little hometown feel the same.”
Block Talk is an exclusive Patch series on neighborhood etiquette — and readers provide the answers. If you have a topic you’d like for us to consider, email [email protected] with “Block Talk” as the subject line.
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