Dickens Christmas Carolers

For six years at two different churches, Ann and I were in a group of singers that dressed in the Dickens era costumes and sang Christmas music for various functions.

We started this in 1979 at Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim, California. The Melodyland Singers sang throughout the year in evening services and during the Christmas season rented Dickens costumes singing wherever we could arrange a concert. We were with this group for three years.

The pictures below were taken at South Coast Plaza Mall in Costa Mesa at Nordstroms with David Feit-Pretzler as our director. Following David was Art Ortiz for one year. Under Art’s direction we sang on television on the PTL Club at Trinity Broadcasting Network Channel 40 in addition to our appearances in the Malls.

Ann - Far Right
Dick - Middle Back Row

Ann - Back Row 6th From Left
Dick - Back Row 2nd From Right

Melodyland had Christmas drama and music productions over one or two weekends with 5 to 10 performances and the group sang to the waiting crowd prior to their entering the auditorium. We left Melodyland in February 1983 and that ended our special singing so we thought.

We started attending South Coast Community Church in Irvine the same month and joined the choir under the direction of Steve Nichols. Steve then held auditions for the Madrigal Singers which was basically like the group we left. That Christmas we dressed up in Dickens costumes and sang in a number of places including private parties. We did that for three years also. All our songs were memorized and unaccompanied by any instruments. The director used a pitch pipe to start our song.

These times are fixed in our memories as wonderful experiences that enhanced our singing years. We will never forget those many nights that were spent singing the carols to an appreciative audience.