WHEN DID YOU START UPTOWN CAROLERS?
It all started in 2013. Several of us were already members of another caroling group in 2012, but we decided to branch out and start our own.
WHAT WERE SOME OF YOUR EARLIEST CAROLING GIGS LIKE?
We started off at the Premium Outlets in Grand Prairie. From there, we spread out all across the Metroplex. The first year, there were just four or five of us. Now we have 17 carolers. Wherever the gig is, we have people close to there who can handle it.
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR QUARTET COMES TO SOUTHLAKE?
We pretty much wander all around Southlake Town Square. We have a couple of stops where we spend some time, like outside Town Hall and around Santa’s Village, but generally, we’ll sing in front of a crowd for a while.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE COMMON CAROLS YOU’LL PERFORM WITH YOUR QUARTET?
The ones that are most requested are ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.’ We may get tired of singing it, but we don’t act like it.
HOW HAS THE CAROLING EXPERIENCE CHANGED FOR YOU IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS?
We upgrade our costumes a little bit every year — make them look a little bit nicer, add a little more Victorian flair. We usually add one new song each year, depending on which songs we’ve gotten requests for that we didn’t know. The ones we add are usually more modern ones, like ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ by Mariah Carey. We like to say we’re a caroling jukebox.
WHAT MAKES YOUR GROUP DIFFERENT FROM OTHER CHRISTMAS CAROLERS?
We try to involve the audience. Whenever we sing ‘Jingle Bells,’ we’ll invite a kid to come up and play the jingle bells with us. We also perform all of our songs from memory. Not a lot of groups do that. It’s more fun that way because we’re more engaged with each other and the crowd. We aren’t just looking down at a book and singing the notes.