A "grownup" memory, some friends and I began carolling on Christmas night about ten years ago. It is still some of the best fun to be had. We gather at one of our homes, each person selects one or two people he/she want to carol, and we mark a route on a city map. We go from house to house, people we know, and they are one and all delighted. When we're done, we come back to the gathering house and make a wassail.

It's wonderful, the surprise and delight on the faces of the people we carol as everyone in the house runs to crowd into the front doorway to listen. And we're just a group who get together and hope we've found a good key for us all, not a well-practiced choral group.

We take any kids we have around for the holidays with us. These must be old enough to do this for two or three hours, so it has become something of a transition rite for them, usually about the age of seven or eight -- so they make the move from Santa to a sharing of the inner joys of making someone else happy.

There's still a lot of magic to be had at Christmas.

Sarah