What a great story!
I never caroled outside, but I sang in candlelight caroling for Christmas celebrations and I can still put myself in that balcony in the dark hearing all of those voices and feeling the chills rise. What a magnificent season of the year to bring us all together.
Now I have just had a memory of the scent of bayberry candles... My mother would always burn them around Christmas time. Thanks for some memories of her; I don’t think about her very often these days.