On the day of Christmas Eve we were stopped in our tracks by the sound and sight of the Stagecoach choir delivering their unique Christmas message to the people of York, next to the Evening Press vendor stand in Parliament Street.

It went this way;

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh."

Followed by a loud "hoy", which came in at the end of every other line and was accompanied by an enthusiastic raising of hands above their heads and massive smiles all round.

The whole troupe, down to the tiniest, were unified in their continuous, confident performance from start to finish and a good crowd, like us, were absolutely captivated by it.

They got as much out of it as we did, and there were others. Standing back from the crowd, but within sight, were a man and his dog.

IF HE OR THE DOG SHOULD READ THIS, I WOULD APPRECIATE A MESSAGE CONFIRMING WHAT I AM GOING TO SAY NOW.

They, like us and the rest of the crowd, were transfixed to the spot and the enjoyment could be seen on his face. His dog, we'll call it Fido, stood up and joined in the singing. As long as they sang, he sang too. Like a true professional his performance was accentuated by accompaniment from his tail and the high notes were delivered to the sky. At the end we applauded and he wagged his tail in agreement.

I cannot imagine anyone being so unfeeling as not to be so proud and appreciative of what a group of our young children were getting from belonging to this group, not to recognise its value to the whole community.

On second thoughts ????????? SCROOGE!

Updated: 14:17 Monday, January 16, 2006