The SaddleBrooke Singers would love to hear your voice in concert with ours at the DesertView Performing Arts Center (DVPAC) on Dec. 17 at 7:30 p.m. Don’t miss the opportunity to sing “Jingle Bells,” “Deck the Halls,” “Jolly Old St. Nicholas,” “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” and more. Experience the joy of celebrating the season with hundreds of other voices. Tickets are on sale at DVPAC for just $20 and at dvpac.net.
Remembering Christmas as a Kid
Remember being beyond excited on Christmas Eve, and your dismay when your folks told you it was time for bed? Were you one of the nice kids who expressed your gratitude for the presents you expected to receive by leaving milk and cookies for Santa? Or perhaps you were one of the naughty kids whose thought was to bribe old Santa with a treat in hopes he might overlook all your transgressions over the past 12 months.
Don’t miss hearing more about the tradition of leaving a treat for Santa, along with the origins of other holiday customs at our Toast to Traditions concert.
The History of the SaddleBrooke Singers
Our annual holiday tradition of performing began in 1993 at a time when no SaddleBrooke clubhouse existed. Our community’s earliest carolers purchased their lots from salesmen housed in an onsite trailer, and once their homes were built, traveled on a two-lane road to Catalina to retrieve their mail and Nina Rd. to buy groceries. In 1995, the singers were ready to perform two Christmas concerts in the recently completed HOA1 clubhouse dining room. By then, the group had expanded from the 20 to 30 people who first responded to a newspaper recruitment notice. The carolers had grown too unwieldy to continue to travel in their golf carts regaling their neighbors with holiday songs and expecting to quench their thirst at various homes.
Shirley Griffin, the founder of the group, along with her cohort Betty Little, soon determined the ever-growing group needed an official director. Betty took up the reins, directing an annual one-hour caroling event named the “Holiday Community Sing-Fest.” In the beginning, 700 invitational flyers were printed and distributed to residents. Today we distribute 5,000 flyers to the community advertising our concert. Historically the bulk of the songs required audience participation. Though our upcoming concert offers more choral music by the choir than in those many years past, you can be assured we need you in the audience to ring out some traditional Christmas carols with us.
2022 Spring Concert
We hope you are planning on joining us after the holiday season at rehearsals for our spring concert. SaddleBrooke Singers is open to all residents. Rehearsals are held at the HOA1 Activity Center from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Please plan on attending our first rehearsal of 2022 on Sunday, Jan. 9.
For more information about the SaddleBrooke Singers, go to saddlebrookesingers.org or phone Claudia at 520-306-2113.