Christmas Eve Bell Ringing on Louisburg Square
On Christmas Eve 1924, Margaret (Nichols) Shurcliff assembled her children and walked from her home at 66 Mount Vernon, up to her parents’ home at 55. There, they rang a short program of carols on handbells. The music attracted an audience, and their response was enthusiastic – applauding “as loud as they could, their hands muffled by woolen gloves.” Encouraged, the Shurcliffs ran through their repertoire again, then moved on to another doorway. This continued for two hours as they walked the neighborhood, the crowd following them. So popular was the carol ringing, that it continued in the following years.
The group Margaret founded, The Beacon Hill Bell Ringers, attracted crowds from all over the United States and Canada. As the event grew, bell ringing groups from elsewhere sometimes joined the festivities. The streets of the Hill were closed to cars, and often the performances were broadcast live over the radio. Aside from a one-year hiatus during the blackouts of World War II, the ringing has been an annual tradition, continuing to this day.
Since the mid-20th century, the Christmas Eve tradition of ringing bells and caroling throughout Beacon Hill has evolved into a gathering in front of a home on Louisburg Square. Each year, a different Proprietor of Louisburg Square has the honor of hosting the bellringers for the performance. The tradition has gained such popularity that a crowd as large as 500 have been observed.
All are welcomed to stay and enjoy merriment following the performance with warm, festive drinks and cookies.
Meet the Beacon Hill Bell Ringers
Victoria Madigan
Victoria began bellringing as a child, learning from her mother, Pam Madigan, and grandmother, Mary Jane Sawyer, who were both Beacon Hill Bellringers. Victoria initially played the jingle bells, and began playing handbells with the Beacon Hill Bellringers in 2006. She also plays classical piano. Victoria works as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Feng Zhang at MIT, where she engineers gene therapeutics and studies how neurons communicate with one another.
Chuck Gibson
Since joining the Beacon Hill Bellringers in 1966, Chuck Gibson has performed in nearly all of the group’s annual Christmas Eve performances. Currently, he also plays with a handbell ensemble at Norwich Congregational Church, in Norwich, Vermont. Chuck came to handbell ringing from an orchestral background as a horn player in the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. Chuck Gibson holds degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design and Yale University School of Art. In 1987 he founded Charles Gibson Design of Hanover, NH, a multidisciplinary design practice with expertise in exhibits, signage, print, environments, and public art.
Pamela Madigan
Pam was introduced to handbell ringing through her mother Mary Jane Sawyer’s involvement with The Needham English Handbell Ringers. In 1956, Margaret Shurcliff (founder of the Beacon Hill Bellringers and The New England Guild of English Handbell Ringers) met Mary Jane. This led to Mary Jane’s participation in the annual Christmas Eve ringing on Beacon Hill. Mary Jane began including Pam in the Christmas Eve performances in the 1960s. Mary Jane kept up the tradition of ringing Christmas Eve until her passing in 2013. Since then, Pam along with residents of Louisburg Square, has been instrumental in keeping this Christmas Eve tradition alive. In addition, Pam rings with The Glory Ringers of Dunns Corners Community Church Presbyterian in Rhode Island.
Griff Gall
Griff is the founding artistic director of the Back Bay Ringers, an advanced, auditioned, handbell ensemble in Boston. BBR was founded in 2004 as the nation’s first handbell ensemble dedicated to members and friends of the LGBT community, and it remains open and affirming for the membership, board, and community. Griff Gall serves as an elementary music and movement specialist in the town of Danvers, MA. He earned a Bachelor’s of Music from Westminster Choir College and a Master’s of Music in Education from Boston University. Griff has presented workshops in handbell pedagogy and has conducted at various conferences both locally and nationally. Griff began his involvement with the Beacon Hill Bellringers in 2014 and continues to participate annually.
Robert Johnson
Bob has been performing and teaching percussion in the Boston area for over 40 years. His experience consists of playing percussive instruments (including drums, handbells, and tone chimes) in various Metro West theater productions and civic organization performances. Bob has participated every Christmas Eve with the Beacon Hill Bellringers since being recruited to ring with the group in 1996.
"M.H.S., L. Grinnell. R. Douglas, I. Davies, A. Norris. In front of 66 Mt Vernon Street in 1948."
Margaret (Homer) Schurcliff and her bells we're featured in Life magazine.
Ringing throughout the years
Beacon Hill Bell Ringers in 1941
The Beacon Hill Bellringers, c. 1930. Margaret Homer Shurcliff, Amy Stone, Elizabeth Bradford, Florence Berlin, unknown.