Anderson University continued its tradition this year of “keeping Christmas” through its annual concert Candles and Carols on December 1 in Reardon Auditorium. The 2-hour concert brought alumni, current students, faculty, staff, and people from the Anderson community together to celebrate the story of Christmas in song. The Chorale, Men’s and Women’s Choirs, the Wind Ensemble, the Chamber Orchestra, and the Dance Team performed with reverence and joy the songs that gave everyone present an unforgettable glimpse at the spirit of Christmas and the Christ child.
The annual event is produced by Jeff Wright and Don Boggs and is broadcast worldwide in 100 markets. Although the program has been a part of AU’s Christmas tradition for over 40 years, the program has grown in excellence and exposure in most recent years. The program interweaves Scripture readings of the Christmas narrative with choral and instrumental Christmas carols performed by AU’s own students. The audience is invited to sing several carols along with the choir. The final song, the traditional German carol “Silent Night, Holy Night,” is sung in candlelight as the audience throughout the auditorium passes a shared flame to each of their small candles. Before the candles glow, President Edwards takes a moment to share a brief message with all who came to celebrate Christmas.
“I try to have a very simple, one-point… message. I think the beauty of it, the music—that’s truly the message,” Edwards said. His brief talk this year focused on rediscovering the wonder of the Christmas message. He shared a delightful vignette about his granddaughter, Eva. At three years old, she discovered that her family gets to celebrate Christmas again this year. “She thought we had one last year and that was it! She discovered we get to keep another one this year,” Edwards laughed. His short words at the end of the program provided one more reminder that the spirit of Christmas is the hope Christ brings to the hearts of children and to all the people of the world.
The impact Candles and Carols is having grows with each year. The professional lighting and superior music brings more people to see it—whether in Anderson or on TV. But because it takes “a slice of the budget” to produce, the University has been seeking an appropriate corporation to sponsor the event. “We have [this] challenge…The music has always been wonderful… The production quality is very high. But I think we have to make sure that if we’re going to be out there [in the market], there’s only one way to be out there, and that is to do whatever we can to have it at the highest possible level.”
Because the production exists both in the auditorium and out on the airwaves, there sometimes comes a conflict between which group gets more focus. The local community supports Candles and Carols by filling the house each year. “There’s probably a time when folks feel that we pay too much attention to that other public, and we lose a little bit of what happens in the room. I’ve determined that we can’t let that happen… We want that to be a wonderful experience,” Edwards explained. He hopes that his message at the end of the program helps to reach out and connect with the audience in the room, even as he knows that his words are heard by millions around the world.
The scope of Candles and Carols has never been so ambitious, but it is the intimate gathering of people to “keep Christmas” one more time that helps make the event a moment full of meaning and wonder. “There are all kinds of things we can do in the future that we haven’t even stepped into yet. But in the end it’s about the basic beautiful sounds and colors of the season,” Edwards said.
