My Heart Sings Christmas

Earlier this evening me and my boyfriend walked to the Jyväskylä city centre to attend Christmas Carol sing along at the Citychurch.

We arrived to the city well in advance, so we walked around and amired a small "Christmas Village", a new tradition the city introduced this Christmas. We looked at baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph. We looked at the two real lambs next to them. We admired the people around us, making their way from store to store, some were just taking a walk, some followed us to the church.

If we had known that there were hundreds of people already waiting to attend the sing along, we had come to the church earlier. But we thought that because this wasn't the first occasion - not even the first of the day - that there would be nicely space. But we were mistaken. We did make it inside the church, but there were no seats left. So we stand all through the sing along.

But I'm so glad that we decided to go and stayed. We did get the lyrics leaflets and had nicely space at the aisle. During the hour which the sing along lasted, we sang together 14 songs. Including one of my all time favourite Christmas songs, Silent Night. It was incredible to hear everyone at the packed church sing all those songs! It was wonderful.

The priest informed us that people have got together to sing these Christmas songs together in this way for 34 years. I have attended a sing along at a church for as long as I can recall. And I've been to many churches; I recall singing Christmas carols at least at 8 churches. I have been with different people; with mum and dad or just mum, with my best friend and her mum, another best friend and her sister and dad and now with my boyfriend.

Naturally one can sing those same Christmas carols anywhere, anytime this time of year. And I do, believe me! But still, truly going to a church and sing those carols with bunch of others makes the Christmas spirit to my heart. I love it! I feel connected with all the people, I feel connected with God. For me, Christmas is sacred and holy. And it means a lot to me, that I've been able to share this tradition with so many of my closeones.

We all have a lot of traditions what comes to Christmas. Christmas carol sing along is one of mine. Christmas is, in many ways, a feeling. It consists of so many things. But for me, most of all, it's about religion, about family, about connection to something so much bigger than myself. When I sing with my closeones and total strangers, I'm connected to it all. And I feel Christmas during it and after that. Frankly, I don't think that Christmas would feel the same without the carol sing along!