Mock Christmas Carols to Welcome Christmas

Every family has a nickname, derived from silly blunders committed by the parents or grandparents. The children are called by that nicknames, sort of a mockery for mistakes they never committed.

Some of the nicknames are wet, egg, pot, potato, fox, wild cat, quail, water can, big bird, dice, etc. All the names have history of their own. Someone pissed in his pants in the past after getting too drunk, his grandchildren are called wet. A man once steals an egg, his children are called egg. Someone in the past got into potato business and ran into deep debt, his children are now called potato. Fox tail given to siblings of a guy who is cunning and a cheat.

Wild cat is a name given to the grandchildren of a person who hid a half roasted wild cat inside the blanket not willing to share the meat with the neighbors. A person steals a quail from his neighbor's bird trap, his children are called quail. Water can, a name given to the grandchildren of a person who once tried to cook sticky rice in a narrow neck aluminium water can. A young boy during the Second World War commented the bomber planes are birds having never seen a plane before; his grandchildren are called big bird. Every family thus have funny names. Dice is a name given to a freaky gambler and his children.

These names all come alive in the Christmas season. Well before Christmas day, the children of the village get together every night and have mock Christmas carols beating drums and singing Christmas hymns. The scheme is mischievous and the sole aim is just to have a nice time and a hearty laugh exploiting the funny names.

During the mock carols, the children halts at every doorstep, the leader shouts out the nickname of the family and reads out a list of mock donations made by the family for Christmas. When the leader stops, all the children booms, scream and have a hearty laugh. The mock donation list also would be something related to the nickname of the family.

Some of the funny mock donations are: "Fox and family is donating a fox tail, fox ears, fox meat and fox legs for Christmas." "Potato's family is gifting away a bag of rotten potato, roasted potato and potato seeds for Christmas." Needless to say that children from all the families in the village are in the group. As such, there is no intention of insulting each other among the children. However, the mock carol tradition didn't go so well with the elders. Only few often would come out and laugh along with the children. Maybe those are the people who understand only childhood has that real thing called 'fun.'


The mock carol processions continue till Christmas Day. After Christmas, the children then turn their attention to building wooden motor cycles to spoil their still new Christmas dresses.

The author once was the leader of that mock carol party who got replaced in the process of growing up.