St. Bart's Carolers Try Again Written by Terry Maloney Photographed by Melinda Maclean

For St. Bartholomew's 2005 carol sing record breaking attempt, five-hundred-and-eighty-six people performed on the church steps for twenty minutes and a total of $419.44 was raised for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Alas, not a record.

The cast members of the Off Broadway hit Altar Boyz started things off with a fabulous rendition of "Joy to the World."

Tune in next year to see if St. Bart's will attempt to break the New York City record for largest carol service--or perhaps the world record for largest carol service. The largest group of carol singers consisted of three-thousand-eight-hundred-and-thirty-seven participants who performed at the Medford Jingle Bell Festival, Medford, Mass. on November 30, 2004.

Let's see; that means they only need three-thousand-two-hundred-and-fifty-one more carolers at the 2006 attempt. Are the steps large enough?

For me, as an observer/caroler, the real disappointment was not failing to break the record, but the fact that they ran out of hot chocolate! Nevertheless, I'll be back next year with my own thermos.