I was Christmas shopping with my Mom recently, and we stumbled upon a guy walking through the mall with a Ukulele. Naturally, we followed him. He ended up at a pile of chairs where there was a group….herd….gaggle….um, a gathering of ukulele players warming up. In all, about 25 players of all ages sat down and proceeded to play holiday songs. Just. For. Fun.

It was awesome.

In fact, singing is one of the best ways to make yourself and others happy. This article from the Guardian sums it up so nicely. “Singing is one of the mega-mechanisms we use for human bonding.”

You say you cannot sing???? It. Does. Not. Matter. If you can talk, then you can sing. Stop being so judgy towards yourself. Nobody wants you to sound like Mariah – we’re probably sick of that song by now anyway.

And singing with people you already like makes it even better. Around my house we sing Christmas Carols on Kayaks.

We sing Christmas Carols — albeit the naughty versions — with my running club.

My End-of-the-Year Karaoke Party with my classroom kids is legendary.

So here is my advice to everyone: sing with friends, strangers, enemies, that random guy at the grocery store, whomever. Just sing.

And if you want to have some smiles and memories forever, sing a holiday song with your family. Pick and easy one – Rudolph, whatever. Just do it and you will be smiling for a long, long time. And if you want to feel yourself age 10 years in 20 minutes, here is our family singing on Christmas Eve each year since 2013. It is awesome to watch. But trust me — it was so much more fun to actually sing!

Merry Christmas!