If you’ve ever wanted to hold a world record, your chance comes Saturday, Dec. 21, at 7:30 p.m.
That’s when Coquitlam’s Park Spark light brigade team will lead visitors to the Lights at Lafarge holiday display in Town Centre Park in a mass sing-along that it hopes will solidify the city’s hold on the world record for most people singing Jingle Bells at once.
Coquitlam carollers first claimed the record on the website recordsetter.com in 2014 when 525 people gathered outside the Evergreen Cultural Centre to sing the holiday favourite and the city has been raising the stakes ever since.
Last year’s record-setting effort attracted 750 participants to the TD Community Plaza where Santa Claus conducted the ad hoc choir from an elevated perch.
Coquitlam’s ongoing Jingle Bells record is one of several involving the song.
In 2012, a group of 488 singers in Albany, N.Y., set the mark for the largest group singing Jingle Bells while ringing jingle bells at the same time and in 2011, 858 people at an elementary school in Austin, Texas, set the standard for playing the song on kazoos.
Other Jingle Bell records include the largest group to bark the song, and the most revolutions around a merry-go-round while singing it.
To warm singers up prior to their keynote performance Saturday, carolling groups and mascots will be along the trail that circumnavigates Lafarge Lake and is currently aglow with holiday displays featuring tens of thousands of colourful LED lights. A “North Pole VIP” will also be available for selfies.
The event begins at 5:30 p.m., with the big sing-a-along scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
And in case you need to brush up on the lyrics, here they are:
Dashing through the snow
On a one horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go,
Laughing all the way
Bells on bob tail ring,
making spirits bright
What fun it is to laugh and sing
A sleighing song tonight
Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
A day or two ago,
I thought I'd take a ride,
And soon Miss Fanny Bright
Was seated by my side;
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot
We got into a drifted bank,
And then we got upsot.
Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle all the way!
Oh, What fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh.
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle all the way!
Oh, What fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh.
Now the ground is white
Go it while you're young
Take the girls tonight
And sing this sleighing song
Just get a bob tailed bay
two-forty as his speed
Hitch him to an open sleigh
And crack! you'll take the lead
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle all the way!
Oh, What fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh.
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle all the way!
Oh, What fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh.
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