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Fees for hiring The Village Carolers are based on an hourly rate, with weekends being slightly more due to very high demand. The ensemble is a quartet (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass) and at least those four must be hired for each performance. Additional singers may be hired to duplicate a part (usually Soprano) if desired. Partial hours are available for performances that last at least one hour. Performances of less than one hour are still charged for a one hour performance.

Travel range availability of singers will be a factor in determining the rate. Our singers are scattered throughout the northeastern U.S. so we do our best to provide singers as close to your performance as possible. This is not always feasible based on singer availability at the time of booking. For this reason, the rate might also have a travel reimbursement charge added for one or more singers. On a one hour performance, a singer receives travel reimbursement for distances more than half an hour away from their location. On two hour performances this goes up to 45 minutes, and for three hour performances this range goes up to one hour.

For performances Mondays through Thursdays, the rate is $85/hr with a $150 booking fee. So, a one hour performance could be as little as $490 if all four singers are within half an hour of your location, and will go up from there based on singer availability and distance. Two hour performances start at $830, three hour performances start at $1170.

For performances Fridays through Sundays, the rate is $95/hr with a $200 booking fee. So, a one hour performance could be as little as $580 if all four singers are within half an hour of your location, and will go up from there based on singer availability and distance. Two hour performances start at $960, three hour performances start at $1340.

We do not post an online calendar of our availability because we have more than one group in more than one location, and send singers out based on the event's proximity to their area. Thus, we can frequently be at more than one place at the same time. Due to the demand for The Village Carolers between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we highly recommend you book as far in advance as possible.

Weekends, especially Saturdays, are the most popular dates in late November and throughout December. Despite having many amazing singers on our roster, these dates often get completely booked up by late spring. Because many of our singers are also professional church musicians, there is limited availability on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. Our talented singers are highly in demand for performance opportunities outside of caroling. In short, book as early as you can if you want our excellent professionals to entertain you!

We typically sing without amplification, especially if we're strolling during our performance time. However, we do have access to an amplification system for use upon request. We have a limited number of systems available, so use of amplification must be reserved in advance, is subject to a small surcharge, and is subject to availability.

We respectfully suggest you try not to use amplification if your intention is to have the carolers be environmental, or background, in nature. We have found that in certain types of events where we are not actually featured entertainment (cocktail/corporate parties, mostly), people tend to just speak over us. This is also true with festivals and events where multiple groups might be performing. If we sing louder in order to be heard, everyone just talks louder, and it turns into a battle that no one enjoys. So, if we're actually featured as performers, amplification might be appropriate. If not, we do not recommend amplification.

While we fully appreciate that you only may need us for 15 or 30 minutes, we have to still pay our performers the rate for a full hour. The reasons for this policy are:

• All four singers must travel to your location from wherever they are.
• They may need time to change into and out of their costumes.
• They perform for your event, and finally;
• They travel sometimes over an hour to return to where they came from.

For each singer, this is not a 15 or 30 minute commitment of time. It is frequently at least two hours, if not more. For these reasons, we have a one hour minimum fee. We hope you understand, and we look forward to singing for you!

There are many costs associated with presenting our carolers which must be covered. The booking fee included in your quote covers:

• General Liability Insurance (a requirement at many venues)
• Special permissions from publishers to make custom arrangements of modern carols
• Credit card payment fees (we don't charge you to use a credit card)
• Music printing for our singers
• Purchasing and maintaining those beautiful Dickensian costumes
• Managing singer schedules and availability
• Web site design and hosting
• Managing client communication and event logistics
• Months of preparation and the many hours of administration behind putting together your performance

Yes, both in the Victorian set and in our exclusive arrangements of popular modern songs. As for our "Victorian" presentation repertoire, many corporate parties wish to keep the overtly Christian influence to a minimum in order to be sensitive to other cultures. We can do smaller sets of our repertoire list which either are not specifically sacred or which can be easily altered to remove specific sacred words, and still maintain the Victorian-era feel and presentation.

Here is a list of the Victorian carols which are less sacred in nature, which we believe are appropriate for a corporate party.

• Bring Us In Good Ale
• Deck the Hall
• Gloucestershire Wassail (Wassail All Over the Town)
• Good King Wenceslas (modified)
• Here We Come A-Wassailing
• Jingle Bells
• Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
• O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum)
• Up On the Housetop
• We Wish You a Merry Christmas

We love and respect all faiths, and in the interest of full inclusivity, if we expanded beyond Christmas we would also need to find and arrange and rehearse songs for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Gita Jayanti, Bodhi Day, Yule, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al Adha. We made the decision long ago that we would exclusively focus our attention on Christmas.

Many Christmas songs are not Christian in nature, including any that have to do with Santa Claus, Frosty, Rudolph, wassailing around the town, being home for the holidays, candy and marshmallows, wintery wonderlands, and things like that. Our clients are able to select their repertoire in their Client Dashboard and can eliminate any songs they don't want to have performed at their event.

Of course! While we typically dress in the Victorian style, we also offer modern songs, many of which are arrangements created exclusively for The Village Carolers and which you won't hear anywhere else.

The modern set now available includes the following songs, all arranged by co-founder Michael Chadwick unless otherwise noted with an asterisk (*).

• The Candy Man
• Carol of the Bells*
• The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
• Frosty the Snowman
• Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
• Here Comes Santa Claus
• A Holly Jolly Christmas
• (There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays
• It's Beginning To Look Like Christmas
• It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
• Jingle Bell Rock
• Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
• Marshmallow World
• (Everybody's Waiting for) The Man With the Bag
• Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
• Santa Claus is Coming to Town
• Silver Bells
• Sleigh Ride
• White Christmas
• Winter Wonderland

Here are the "Victorian" era holiday classic carols and songs included in our repertoire:

• Angels We Have Heard On High
• Away in a Manger
• Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella (Un flambeau, Jeanette, Isabella)*
• Bring Us In Good Ale
• Coventry Carol
• Deck the Hall
• Ding Dong Merrily on High
• The First Noel
• Gloucestershire Wassail (Wassail All Over the Town)
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
• Good Christian Men Rejoice! (In dulce jubilo)*
• Good King Wenceslas
• Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
• Here We Come A-Wassailing
• The Holly and the Ivy
• It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
• Jingle Bells
• Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
• Joy to the World
• O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum)*
• O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)*
• O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Veni, Veni, Emanuel)*
• O Little Town of Bethlehem
• Once in Royal David's City
• Patapan
• Silent Night (Stille Nacht)*
• Sing We Now Of Christmas (Noël Nouvelet)*
• Still, Still, Still
• Sussex Carol
• Up On the Housetop
• We Three Kings of Orient Are
• We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Titles in this list with an asterisk (*) include the first verse presented in the original language, and then the entire carol or song (with the first verse again) presented in English.

Our singers are very much in demand, which is a great thing because that means you're getting high quality artists performing for you. In order to ensure we have the best singers performing with The Village Carolers, when we contract them for your performance, they will not take any other singing work for that date and time. In order to make this possible, their contracts stipulate that they will receive payment in full for the performance regardless of whether or not that performance takes place. For this reason, we require payment in full for booking performances.

We highly recommend you purchase event insurance, as winter can sometimes cause events to be cancelled due to weather emergencies. This has happened before, though thankfully not very often. There is no reason to take such a risk. Please insure your event.