Alison Burns, leads the Castle Douglas Feral Choir and has been busying organising festive performances of ‘Forgotten Carols’ around Dumfries and Galloway.
She started researching old songs when her daughter was a baby and she wasfeeling jaded with Christmas and especially fed up with the same old songs and carols every year.
Alison said: “Even if you’re not religious, Christmas is a really important time when most people can slow down and take stock of their lives, for a short time at least. I realised I had to reinvent it for myself in a way that would make it meaningful and special again.
“I began researching old songs and customs and found a treasure trove of beautiful and ‘lost’ songs.I found carols that went out to America with early settlers, for example, and have evolved into different versions of the ones we’re used to.It’s great to breathe new life into them.
“I also love the traditions that everyone’s families have adopted over the years. When my nieces were children we made coloured paper lanterns and lit candles in them as the light of the day turned into dusk. Now that they’re adults, we still do this together and it’s a wonderful connection to the past and each other.”
