Bob Jones University Getting Into The Christmas Spirit

Bob Jones University will host the 21st annual Christmas Carol Sing and Lighting Ceremony at 6:30 p.m., Dec. 2.

The event is free to the public.

The carol sing and lighting ceremony is one of BJU’s largest annual events, the planning of which goes on throughout the year. 

“We think about Christmas all year long,” said Teresa Armstrong, campus decorator.  “We start playing Christmas music while most people are still using sunscreen.” 

In addition to the nearly 200,000 lights that will be lit during the ceremony, refreshments will be available for purchase and special music will be featured in the student center and the campus store will offer holiday savings.  The museum and gallery, which will be open from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. with free admission, will feature Music with the Masters.
 
While the crowd gathers for the evening, the University Singers will perform arrangements of traditional Christmas music, followed by the audience carol sing that will feature well-loved songs such as "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "I’ll Be Home for Christmas," "Jingle Bells" and "Winter Wonderland."  After Scripture is read, the audience will sing the first two stanzas of "O Holy Night."  During the third stanza by a soloist, the light switch will be flipped to light the campus.  The program will conclude with more carols.
 
Following the carol sing, the renowned trumpet duet, Barbara Butler and Charles Geyer, will join the BJU Symphonic Wind Band for a special performance of Carmen Fantasia by Georges Bizet. The performance will take place in Rodeheaver Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.  The husband and wife duo have been performing together since 1975, are currently co-principal trumpets in Chicago's Music of the Baroque, and are professors of Trumpet in the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.