Carols by Candlelight--A Barbados Christmas Tradition

Imagine hundreds of citizens flooding the White House lawn at Christmas time with picnics in hand. Imagine a stage set up on the lawn and everyone handed a candle to light and hold while they sing.  Imagine people from all walks of life mingling and enjoying the Christmas sprit.  Imagine that and you get an idea of what Carols by Candlelight at Ilara Court is like.

Ilara Court is the residence of the Prime Minister of Barbados and every December, the Rotary Clubs of Barbados organize a charity event called Carols by Candlelight.  For 25 dollars Barbados, 12.50 US, an adult and two children can attend this event.  Each child is asked to bring a "worthwhile wrapped gift" for a child between the ages of birth and 16 years.  These gifts are distributed among underprivileged children, many of them living in children's homes. 

I had heard the name mentioned before but I really didn't know anything about it until I met Sarah.  She and her family have been going to Ilarra Court for 9 years and her glowing descriptions finally sold me.  She described the beautiful music, the candlelight, the entertainment and the fun. My husband and I are always eager to try something new so we started to prepare.

The first thing was to get tickets which were easily obtained from the party store in Sheraton Mall (our only real mall).  I found out later that one of our friends from church is a Rotarian.  I promised to get our tickets through him next year.  Then we went to the toy store.  Actually we tried to get gifts earlier but I had forgotten to switch my wallet from my gym bag to my purse. OOPS.  The second time, I gave the kids a spending limit and let them go through the toy store.  I told them to get something they would be happy to receive. They really got into it.  My youngest daughter was especially taken with her toy and told me that Santa was going to bring her a baby doll just like the one she got for "her girl."

Second, we wrapped the presents.  Each child included a note, a homemade card or a coloring page.  They were eager for their gifts to be opened by "their" child.  They were disappointed that they couldn't know the child's name or meet them but they were very happy to do something special for a child who didn't have lots of toys like them.  I was proud of how much they cared about making the gift special.

On the day of the big event, we had a few moments of doubt about when to arrive at Ilarra Court.  I'd been told to be there at 4 (it was supposed to begin at 5).  The only problem is that in Barbados, the time you're told is usually at least a half hour ahead of when they actually expect you to show up.  When we first moved to Barbados, we arrived at a child's birthday party before the hosts.  Oops!  Our US born former pastor used to clarify his times with "ish" or "sharp."  Bajan time was 5 ish but if he wanted to see anyone before 6pm, he would clarify with "sharp."  So our dilemma was figuring out whether we should be there for 4ish or 4 sharp.  We opted for 4 sharp since the ingrained American habit of being early/on time is hard to overcome.  As it turns out, four was the perfect time for arriving.  We found Sara and her crew soon enough and set up our blanket and food bags next to them. 

While people were arriving and setting up, we were treated to Christmas music played on steel pan drums.  I personally love the soft chiming of steel pan drums.  It really made the atmosphere festive.  My second son and I wandered around and took a closer look at the Prime Minister's beautiful house.  We didn't see any security people preventing anyone from going right up to the house on top of the hill, but no one attempted it out of respect for the Prime Minister.  The gardens were beautiful although we didn't wander through them.  The lawn was by this time starting to really fill up so we went back to our space and my husband took my oldest son to help him carry food for all of us.

I had prepared a picnic but had somehow gotten out without the sandwiches (DOH!) So we purchased tickets to buy the food. The kids had tuna sandwiches and a ham sandwich which unfortunately turned out to have mustard on it.  However my husband and I ended up eating "Proper Pork Sandwiches" which are big, tasty slices of pork on a fluffy bun.  They were delicious.  The kids were very pleased with the donuts Daddy bought for dessert and Sara had prepared a generous variety of chips, dips, tarts, cookies and other goodies which she generously shared.

Just as they were about to begin, a sudden unexpected rain shower came.  We, unfortunately, hadn't thought to take our umbrellas out of the car so Rob went for the umbrellas while the kids and I huddled under one of the mats we had been sitting on.  I wrapped my camera case in the plastic bag we'd been given for trash.  We sat under there and ate our sandwiches until Rob returned with two umbrellas.  Then we huddled under the umbrellas until the rain stopped about a half hour later.  Luckily it wasn't a "cold" night. 

The entertainment was lively, fun and festive for the most part.  A retired Italian opera singer sang beautifully as did a 13 year old boy who has won several awards.  As the slower carols began and the darkness became deeper, the candles were lit.  Not many of the crowd brought their own light, but everyone was eager to help light the candles of his neighbors if he had a flame of his own, and to me that enhanced the spirit of the whole event.  Looking ahead or behind me, I could see an ocean of candles.  It was a breathtaking sight. 

Although we left before the final song (more rain was coming and our kids were tired) we all agreed it was worth the trip and trouble.  Despite the rain, it was a wonderful experience and it really got our whole family into the holiday spirit.  We will definitely be doing this again. Thanks Sara!