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“Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.” Winston Churchill

I’m rerunning some Choral Ethics blogs from years past with a few modifications where needed. Two of my MOST REQUESTED December Blogs will also be making their yearly appearances.

In a few days, it will be Christmas Eve. Your plans have been made for months if you’re anything like me. But this is the Christmas of 2025, so you probably have a “Plan B” if you’re smart and I know you are. Here in the Midwest, there could be a blizzard predicted, so that always adds another layer of planning. Just when we think things are back to “normal,” something happens to mess it all up!

Advent and Christmas, more than Lent and Easter, are much more stressful for our profession. I’m not sure why, but perhaps it’s the gift giving and baking and traveling to see family and friends and all the concerts and services we must prepare or attend. Or maybe it’s just the time of year, who knows? We have many things to accomplish, usually in the dark, and we rarely get all accomplished. I do know for a fact we’re all stressed.

I am here today to remind you to try to be as relaxed as you are able to be, in this super busy season for Choral Folk. Take a breath and when you are thrown for a loop, take another breath. And be kind. Be kind to those around you, whether they be your family, your choir or those you work with. Make kindness “your thing” this Christmas, no matter what happens. Be kind, my dear friends, and reap the benefits later.

Stress cancels out the beauty of the season and there is plenty of beauty so take a breath, do your Alexander Technique breathing or yoga breathing, and take a moment to relax and enjoy. You deserve the beauty; you deserve the goodness you’ve been creating for everyone else this holiday season. You deserve to have some cookies and eggnog and punch, so have some. And you deserve to have some Fa-La-Las directed by someone else for a change!

Know you’ve made a difference in someone’s life this holiday season and you may never know it. Be okay with not knowing because that will be your gift to the world. Your choir singing “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” may have comforted a child who lost a parent this year or someone newly widowed. Singing “Silent Night” may be the only time a rough and tough teenager uses their voice and finds they like singing. Something you do, something you have planned, something you are not aware of will make a difference. You may find out, you may not, but know you have made a difference.

Much love to you all, ChoralNet, as we ’round the corner to Christmas.

Search Results for: choir

Mystery donor gives 5,000 euros donation to Bath choir

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BATH, UK — Braunschweiger Zeitung featured a story about St Andrew’s C of E Primary following a visit to the school.  The cash donation was left in an envelope outside Braunschweig Cathedral referring to the newspaper article. Head teacher Sue East said: “It was an emotional moment because I felt vindicated for all our work.”  Also […]

Choir featured on NPR’s Radiolab

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The Young New Yorkers’ Chorus appears on the latest Radiolab podcast on Color.  The singers are used to represent the colors seen by different animals.  http://www.radiolab.org/series/podcasts/

Cultural diversity finds common voice with Australian choir

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MELTON, AUS — A new community choir is helping refugee women settle into Australian life.  Founder Dianne Simboro says the choir has attracted women of Sudanese, Burmese, Korean and Saudi Arabian backgrounds from Melton, Sunshine and Werribee.  The choir rehearses from 6.30pm on Thursdays at Melton’s St Dominic’s Little Catholic Church. Ms Simboro says she […]

British show choir euphoric at call to perform at Olympics

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A BACKWELL choir has been asked to perform at the Olympics. Reaching higher notes than ever before, Euphoria Show Choir, pictured, has been chosen from thousands to perform in the stadium and Olympic Village. The news comes after the choir was also invited to perform in The Royal Albert Hall. Euphoria, a singing and dancing […]

Choir sings for the voiceless

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By Rhiannon Horrell   AUKLAND, NZ — A softly spoken Ugandan boy who is in the country as part of a travelling children’s choir is matter-of-fact about his upbringing in the east African nation. Geoffrey Oyaka, 12, says he lost his parents as a child.  “I lost my mother to HIV/Aids. My father was abducted by […]

Burcough choir celebrates carol singing world record

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By Jaime McLoughlin   BURSCOUGH, UK — A GROUP of churchgoers in Burscough celebrated with cheerful voice on learning they had helped smash a world record for carol singing. When 300 people gathered at St John the Baptist Church on December 18 last year, they were among almost 200 other churches across the globe hoping to […]

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