Steve Carell Describes Agonizing Christmas Caroling Moments

For many, the Holidays are a chance for family to get together and reminisce over old times, but there’s one part of Christmas in particular that Steve Carell would be perfectly happy not revisiting. Like many children growing up in America, Carell was taken Christmas caroling by his family, and during an appearance on Ellen, he admitted that he’s not the biggest fan.

“My parents used to take us caroling,” he explained to Ellen. “I grew up back in Massachusetts, so if it snowed I’d be on the back of a sled, Flexible Flyers I think they called them, and they’d pull me around. We’d all have candles and go door to door in our neighborhood and go caroling.” Accompanied by his whole family, including his three brothers and some of his neighbors, it’s something he says the neighborhood he grew up in still participates in.

“My wife Nancy gets really embarrassed by the carolers,” he admitted. “She doesn’t know how to react. You know, you get to the door and they start singing and you have this face, it’s like a caroler face. You’re like, ah, ah, and then, thank you, that was wonderful. And you give them appreciation so they sing another song. And you get, like, even worse caroler face like, ‘Oh no, what am I going to do now?'”

As Ellen points out, it’s hard to just say “thank you” and close the door after just one song. “You have to be very gracious,” Carell added. “I went to a party at a neighbor’s house a few years ago, where there was a woman who insisted on singing solo Christmas Carols at the party, and she didn’t have a great voice and she did what you would call ‘scooping a note.’ You don’t hit the note at first, you kind of get to it.” He then proceeded to offer an impression of her singing, and it’s about as horrific as you’d expect.

“I was sweating bullets,” he joked. “I empathize so deeply with people going through trauma, and I just knew that everyone there was just waiting for her to finish, and she was the only one who didn’t know that. And then she did five more songs.”

During the chat on Ellen, he also spoke about his new film Welcome to Marwen, and his experience walking in high-heels for certain scenes on the set for the movie. Recently, the actor sparked rumors of a revival of The Office, after he commented on a picture of the cast together with a simple, “Miss you guys.”