It always starts with music. It always has. If you listen, you’ll hear it. Every day starts with a simple song. Can you hear the birds? Each event in life has some melody attached to it. A wedding, a baby’s lullaby, a holiday…. Sometimes the symphony rings loud, and other times it’s so quiet you can barely hear it. You might even think the music has died. But it hasn’t, just wait, you’ll hear it again. I promise. I’m Cheryl, mom of The Christmas CarolerZ. We are a real family, and the music of Christmas has been a foundation in our lives.

Dirk was in his mid 30’s and I was in my late 20’s. Both of us with years of performance behind us and years of “friends” determined to get us set up with somebody. And so, when it happened again, it was nothing new. No great surprise to hear two friends once again say, “I have someone you need to meet!” That was at a big music convention in 1999, but it would be another year at the next convention before a relationship really started.

We lived in different parts of the country. He was from California and sang tenor for a Gospel quartet, and I was from Texas and played banjo and sang with my family band. We are evidence that a long distance relationship can work. For months we wrote letters and sent emails. Mobile phones were still expensive and not too popular yet, so Dirk bought thousands of minutes’ worth of phone cards. Since I was on tour much of the time, I would page him when I was able to be near a phone or phone booth. Those were our dates for many months.

In December of 2000, as we would talk, sometimes his voice sounded tired. I learned it was due to a seasonal job he had. He was with a Christmas caroling company in Los Angeles. I was intrigued by that. He was making plans to come see me, but it would have to be just after Christmas. When the job ended, he flew out to Texas. He wore cowboy boots and rented a truck so he’d fit in. As we celebrated our first Christmas together, he gave me a gift. A thick green book, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Little did either of us realize that gift would be a foreshadowing of many Christmases to come.

The next spring I moved out to California and lived with his mom and stepdad. This gave us a chance to get to know each other in person. Though I confess, I had already fallen completely in love with his heart. I had realized that some months before on a phone date in a cabin on tour in Alaska. Because of him, for the first time in my life, I was working jobs that were not music related, driving a car and living in a house rather than on a bus, and learning to do “normal” things like buying my own groceries. I once heard Celine Dion say, “I’d just like to buy my own tomatoes.” I could so relate. Normal was a new adventure I was kind of enjoying.

In August of that year we were engaged. I was excited and ready to start planning our wedding. But weddings can be expensive, and I wasn’t one of the rich and famous musicians. How was I going to get the money for that? Dirk suggested caroling. Wow, that was different for a girl who sang country gospel and played banjo. But I did it, and this would continue for the next several years as we pursued music in other ways. He would continue with the quartet and I did solo work. Eventually we became a duet. But come Christmas, it was back to caroling again.

My grandmother was a seamstress, and I had learned early in life how to sew. I had designed costumes for my family band. So in the first Christmas of our marriage, I enjoyed the challenge of designing my Christmas caroling costume. I liked it so much better than the one provided by the caroling company, put together from thrift store pieces. By year three of our marriage, I had to modify the costume to accommodate pregnancy. The year after that I hired a nanny. She would go with me on gigs. Then during breaks I would nurse our baby girl and change her diaper, then get back to work. As she grew, sometimes our little toddler would be able to go on jobs with me. The audience loved seeing the little girl with us, all dressed up for Christmas, especially at the retirement homes. By baby number two, Dirk was still working with the Carolers, but I was usually at home with the little ones. When baby number 3 came, I sold the costume as we were getting ready to move to Texas.

Time passed and we continued performing together as “Dirk & Cheryl.” Our small children began to join us occasionally, on little songs. The plan was to raise them much like I had been raised, with a lot of traveling and singing. But our two oldest kids became very ill. That was hard and it changed life a lot. For several years music became limited to basically leading worship on Sunday mornings at a small local church. Dirk had a day job as I took care of the kids and kept a small farm, growing much of our food in an attempt to help our babies heal.

Then one Christmas Dirk asked, “Why don’t we try Christmas caroling?” My response, “Just the two of us?” Well, that idea seemed a bit different. He still had his old costume, and I modified a red princess costume from a Halloween clearance rack. It actually worked out pretty okay. We had a few jobs for a couple of years, and the people enjoyed it. Then the kids were beginning to feel better. So Dad taught them to sing their parts. I remember all of us singing to the neighbors as we handed out homemade cookies. That was good practice and fun. I was able to get some jobs booked for us. Dad found new tuxedos, and I managed the costumes for the girls. The next year we booked a few more jobs. The kids were so little but singing so big. Christmas caroling was developing into a family business where we were sharing the work and the rewards together.

It’s been about 8 years now since the kids first began singing with us. I love looking back at those first promo pictures. They were so adorable. Then I listen to some of the old recordings, and they sound so precious. Underneath it all, they were carrying their vocal parts with confidence in genuine family harmony. We were all making music together.

On May 4 of 2027, Dirk and I will celebrate 25 years of marriage. Which means this Christmas marks 25 years since our caroling adventure began together. We were a young couple who met through music, fell in love, married, and used Christmas caroling to help build our lives  together. Like any couple who have been together this many years, we have seen our share of ups and downs. During those hard times, it felt like the music had stopped. It didn’t. It was just quiet for a while. Now we hear it again. We are Mom and Dad with three children who have grown up singing beside us. We have listened to the music resonate in our home when they were babies. They have sung beside us. Now, they are all almost grown. Our oldest girl is 21 and in college, our son is 18 and soon to graduate, our baby girl is 15. Those little kids aren’t so little anymore. But every Christmas we come together to sing and make music again.

We are The Christmas CarolerZ, and this Christmas, we invite you to be part of our life’s song—to celebrate and hear the music with us.