The following is a written account of the oral tradition of "The Carolers" phenomena. There is no known region or timeframe of origin in regard to this tradition. Rather, this written account will pull folklore, urban myth, and eyewitness accounts from a variety of places and times.
The Carolers (sometimes referred to as "The Wassailers") is a phenomenon that occurs predominantly during the month of December; however, some reports suggest that occurrences in late November and early January have also been recorded. The phenomenon appears to be supernatural in origin, and there appears to be no certain way to trigger the occurrence. However, every witness to the apparition(s) has had one crucial similarity:
All of those who had been visited by The Carolers had recently donated clothing to a local charity or drive, with only minor exceptions.
Given the seasonal timing of the occurrence — surrounding or on the Christmas holiday — the clothing in question is often wintertime outerwear, including, but not limited to jackets, coats, sweaters, vests, mittens, gloves, scarves, beanies, bonnets, earmuffs, snow boots, and other assorted cold weather attire.
Additionally, it should be noted that, while every eye-witness of the phenomenon had recently donated such apparel, not every donor was visited by the apparition(s), though it is still uncertain why this is the case.
According to varying legends and the mouths of those who had allegedly seen The Carolers, the apparition(s) would appear sometime after the donation had taken place, always at night and on nights where the temperature was considerably low, often snowing and, in some instances, below zero. While the timing of the appearances would vary from location to location, many Caroler sightings would occur during the middle of the night, around midnight to three in the morning. Eye-witnesses would describe hearing a “faint, nearly inaudible” sound upon waking from their slumbers. After some moments would pass, this sound would rise considerably in volume and become intelligible, though muffled. As described, the growing sound was that of either a voice or several, depending on the quantity of clothing articles donated prior. The voice(s) was/were often described as “angelic” or “otherworldly,” and would reportedly be heard singing Christmas carols from outside the home. Hence, the phenomenon is referred to as “The Carolers.”
As such, the following list catalogs every known song reportedly sung by the apparition(s), although the catalog is incomplete and constantly being updated as new sightings occur and new songbooks/music sheets are discovered: Here We Come A-Caroling, Silent Night, Good King Wenceslas, Adestes Fideles, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Angels We Have Heard on High, Coventry Carol, We Three Kings, In the Bleak Midwinter, and The Little Drummer Boy.
Upon hearing any of these carols (or any undocumented ones not aforementioned), many of those who encountered the phenomenon would follow the sound to its point of origin, typically outside the home’s (or apartment’s) front door, where the witness in question would see what appeared to be the clothing that they had donated prior, suspended in the air and seemingly “worn by (an) invisible person(s),” with the sound emanating from “where a mouth should be,” often beneath a beanie or somewhere within a hooded coat. Upon the completion of the carol, these garments would then drop to the ground, and the phenomenon would end.
With the exception of a large family of eight from Nebraska, most sightings of the apparition(s) consisted of anywhere from one to six Carolers outside the front door, with the average being three. Due to the nature of typical clothing donations and drives, the outfits worn by the apparition(s) are often incomplete, with some being mere scarves four feet off the ground, to others (often visitors of more generous benefactors) being fully bundled with the exception of a face. Any and all appearances of The Carolers phenomenon, despite differences in attire or the amount thereof, behaved in a similar manner. The apparition(s) would appear, sing, and depart, with only a few, rare exceptions that will be listed below:
Mary Thomas, a 68-year-old woman from Des Plaines, Illinois, is the only recorded individual visited by The Carolers who did not report the sighting herself. Rather, the sighting, though not confirmed to have been The Carolers but highly likely, was made by a neighbor who claimed that they had heard a loud banging sound sometime around two-thirty AM during the morning of December 23rd, 1988. Upon donning a robe and heading over to the Thomas residence, the neighbor discovered the front door to be wide open, a pile of old clothes littering the front porch, and Mary Thomas’ body lying on the hallway rug. Thomas had suffered a heart attack sometime between two in the morning and when the neighbor had found her.
Months prior, Thomas had surgically received a stent in her heart and, because of the outpouring of donations on her behalf and her weight loss due to her health condition, decided to gift much of her old clothing to a local charity for the holidays.
Much of that clothing was discovered on Thomas’ front porch that very morning.
Eric Anderson, a thirty-year-old from Liverpool, England, was declared legally dead in 2007 after being considered a missing person for seven years. In the year 2000, after not returning to work for a period of three days, Anderson’s apartment was visited by local police, who discovered not only the home to be vacant, but no signs of forced entry or foul play present within. Instead, investigators were only left with an empty bed, Anderson’s pajamas beneath the covers, and nothing to suggest that he had fled the premises. All of Anderson’s clothes and suitcases were accounted for, and a wallet containing his ID and six hundred dollars in cash were retrieved from the nightstand.
Though no official connection to the phenomenon ever surfaced, Anderson’s eventual obituary did describe him as a “charitable man.” Despite this claim, however, little evidence of such generosity was conveyed in Anderson’s financial statements.
Additionally, these statements never once suggested that Anderson had any children nor was paying any form of child support. Yet, in spite of this, ten children’s winter garments were discovered surrounding Anderson’s bed on the night the police investigated his disappearance.
One of the earliest documented cases of the phenomenon, occurring during a midnight mass at the Basilica of Saint Luke in North Bay, Ontario on Christmas Eve, 1895, describes a candlelit service that ended with a choral rendition of “Silent Night.” As the first verse came to an end and the second began, the congregation within the small church heard a loud swell of voices that rattled the stained-glass windows and surrounded the entire building. Many of those within ceased their singing, but according to a letter written from the Basilica to a neighboring one, “the heavenly hosts continued in their praises until the final word was uttered.”
When the voices had finished the song, many of the congregants in attendance, led by candlelight, made their way outside and into the snowstorm that awaited them. Even those too fearful to trek beyond the warmth of the building rejoiced as the arms of their brothers and sisters in Christ carried bundles of blankets, hand-knitted sweaters, and other “gifts from the Lord” into the sanctuary.
Many of these gifts would be distributed to the needy and poor the following Christmas morning, though, to this day, the origins of these articles remain a mystery.
Many paranormal investigators and some religious scholars have concluded that, if the claims of the phenomenon should be considered truthful, The Carolers are mere harbingers who, rather than offer warnings for the future, offer gratitude for the past. However, others, far more skeptical of purely good-willed beings of Yule, suggest that The Carolers, if they exist at all, may also serve as vengeful Christmastime spirits.
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