O Little Town of Bethlehem

Merry Christmas, especially if you are spending today alone.
Families are not all they are cracked up to be: go out and have a peaceful walk, and celebrate yourself today!
I promise to write a proper review of the Daintees Christmas shows, but I did have to share the hilarity of yesterday evening's Nine Lessons and Carols service at St John's in Barnet. It is s lovely event, because the choir is amazing and their choirmaster, David Willetts, chooses some beautiful carols for them to sing.
The congregation was a symphony of Christmas hairdos and from a distance resembled a selection of delectable desserts, sugar-coated and blowtorched to caramel sumptuosness.
Three fidgety teenage girls got into the pew behind us (they arrived late, of course), and shrilled their way through every carol, perfectly in time with each other but finishing every line at least two beats before the rest of the congregation.
Finally, O Little Town of Bethlehem was scheduled.
For some unfathomable reason, St John's uses a different melody to the standard one, very beautiful but unfamiliar to most people in the congregation, who pick their way through it nervously and sigh with relief when they manage to complete it.
The three girls were completely undaunted by this. They sang all the way through at maximum volume: they sang the melody that they knew from start to finish, confidently, loudly, and unstoppably, completely disregarding what the other people were singing and the strident commands of the church organ.
What chutzpah!
Noisily, they left a few songs and readings later, presumably to go to the pub.