A 'Caroling Mob' takes to city streets

It's not the first place one would expect to find 50 Christmas carolers -- the produce section of a Stop and Shop -- but that was the whole idea.

Four years ago, Joel Sindelar of Jamaica Plain organized the Boston Caroling Mob, a group of strangers and friends who come together once or twice a year to carol around the streets and stores of Boston. "This feels like my Christmas present to the city," said the 35-year-old graduate of the New England Conservatory.

The carolers tromped around the Hyde Square area of Jamaica Plain last Sunday. They met in the Jackson Square T station, got their photocopied lyrics, and practiced for a few minutes before heading into the street.

They hit the local Stop and Shop, where they serenaded people as they picked out bananas and bagged their groceries. Shoppers clapped and called out holiday greetings as they left.

Later that night, after the carolers sang on Walden Street , an elderly man walked outside and told the group that he usually gets depressed this time of year, but seeing and hearing this large number of carolers made this his best Christmas since he moved to Boston 26 years ago, Sindelar said.

"It seems like every year, a few people are really touched," said Sindelar, a New Hampshire native.

This weekend Sindelar is starting a "mob" in Idyllwild, Calif., where he is visiting family. He also has started various chorale groups and taught music classes in the Boston area.

Of caroling, he said, "I thought it'd be a good opportunity for people to give to each other.

"The basic problem of being friendly in Boston is that . . . if you are nice to people randomly on the subway, they look at you suspiciously. But carolers? How can people be suspicious of that?"

CHRISTINE JUNGE