It seems like only a short time ago that we were making plans for the run-up to Christmas. Suddenly, poof! December’s over, and our busy holiday season of performances is behind us.

We had an interesting time! Here are some of the highlights:

Candlelight services for Advent

Our Advent season started with two Christmas by Candlelight services – one in Marne and the other in Grand Haven. Both these evenings were beautiful; an opportunity for a community to come together and welcome the season with music and fellowship. Handbell music fits so perfectly for such occasions.

More collaboration with the Zeeland Community Band

We joined with the Zeeland Community Band for another concert this holiday season. It’s fun to add our handbells to some of the band’s festive favorites. We can’t restrict ourselves to playing only 8 bells in each piece, so it’s quite a challenge too, switching bells frequently during pieces.

A new challenge – playing handbells in the dark

We played an hour of soothing holiday music at Abrams Planetarium. This was part of the “Rest With Music: Goodnight Series” at Michigan State University. It was a very different kind of performance venue for us – playing in darkness while stars and snowflakes drifted above. The audience was there to relax, maybe even take a nap, and enjoy an hour of continuous music.

The challenges for us were: a) playing in darkness, with only a music-stand light to help us see the music; b) having to remove a sheet of music at the end of each piece and replace it with another one, and c) changing bells between pieces at top speed, so as not to interrupt the flow of music. We managed by taking an additional table with us. Once we’d finished playing a piece, Larry would continue to hold at least two notes, still ringing, while Carla pulled the score off the music stand and onto the extra table, leaving the next score ready to play. After a bit of practice at home, we were able to do this smoothly. We limited our key changes, and played pieces in “blocks” all in the same key, which kept the challenge of changing bells between pieces to a minimum. It was an enjoyable event, and we hope to go back to the Planetarium again in the future!

Community and church events

This season, we enjoyed presenting varied programs of Christmas and holiday music to community, charity and church groups in and around Holland and Grand Rapids. It’s always an interesting experience to talk about our bells and our music – and it’s fun to take questions from audience members, some of whom haven’t heard handbells before, or haven’t seen our 4-in-hand style of ringing.

We also played at a couple of corporate holiday parties in Grand Rapids, where we greeted guests with Christmas carols!

Some of our most rewarding performances of the holiday season took place at senior living communities and nursing homes in our local area. We played carols for small groups of residents, and provided last-minute entertainment at a care home holiday party after the previously-booked entertainer cancelled.

We challenged ourselves, once again, to give twelve hours of our time to play Christmas carols at the Salvation Army Red Kettle. The Salvation Army does a lot of good work here in West Michigan – and we’ve spoken to people who have benefited personally from their help. So we were more than happy to offer our support to their Christmas fundraising campaign. We played four 3-hour sessions at our local D&W Fresh Market, and hope to do the same again next year.

Christmas handbell music in Downtown Holland

It was fun to play Christmas music in Downtown Holland too! We enjoyed giving two performances in Cherry Republic – one of our favorite stores on 8th Street. We also made our first appearance at the annual Kerstmarkt, on a chilly Friday evening. Playing handbell duets outdoors in cold weather is an interesting challenge. Thankfully, the snow hadn’t yet started to fall. Although we noticed some interesting differences in the pitch and ringing action of the bells, there was no lasting damage. We thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to be part of such a festive local event. We hope to be able to repeat the experience at the 2018 Kerstmarkt!

Our 2017 Christmas performance season ended at Ridge Point Community Church, where we played in their three Christmas Eve services. We also made our first visit to Christ Memorial Church, greeting people with handbell music as they arrived for services.

We’d like to thank everyone who helped to make our 2017 holiday season so memorable (and busy!). To everyone who booked us to provide entertainment, or came to one of our performances, we thank you. If you supported us during one of our Salvation Army sessions, or wrote a review – we appreciate that.

If you missed our holiday season performances this year, check our website and Facebook page for information about future events. Look out for us in Holland and beyond in 2018!