BELMAR — Ordinarily, Christmas carolers walk from home to home, but not at the Walsh household, where the whole community was invited to join a mini-holiday concert to sing and enjoy Christmas carolers on the driveway last Saturday night.
John Walsh, who is special events coordinator for Belmar, called the event “reverse caroling.” Many chairs, heaters and Christmas lights were set up to welcome dozens from the community as they enjoyed many carols from the ensemble.
Walsh said, “Instead of going house-to-house, we held caroling in my driveway. A miniature concert, caroling in reverse, which we have been doing since 2021.”
Despite the North Pole-esque conditions with the brutal cold, the carolers sang on and the residents filtered in and out throughout the hour of caroling. At the end of the carols, Santa made a surprise appearance, giving candy canes to all those attending.
“People make it a tradition to come every year after year,” said Walsh. “They have come in the snow, rain or cold.”
Walsh also made sure all the carolers were comfortable and thanked them for choosing to spend that frigid night caroling in his driveway. All the volunteers were treated to snacks, cocoa and more merriment for an after-party of sorts around warm fires.
One of the carolers, who was new this year, was Julia Nicolay. She said, “I love John, first of all. And secondly, my mom is very good friends with John. I am home for the holidays and I would either be sitting on my couch or doing this.”
She added, “This is just fun, it’s cool and the whole town comes out.”
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