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Dial-A-Carol is a University of Illinois tradition dating back to the 1960s.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
In the movie Elf, Buddy tells New Yorkers that the best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing loudly for all to hear. To the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s volunteer dial-a-carol team, that message is preaching to the choir.
Since 1960, the university has offered a phone-based caroling system that allows campus community members, and others around the country, to call and be serenaded by a student, staff or faculty member staffing the line.
Carolers respond to thousands of calls each winter, helping spread joy during a busy finals and holiday season and carrying on a university tradition.
How it works: The Dial-A-Carol hotline runs for seven days during finals week and this year started at 12:01 a.m. Central time on Dec. 12, to close tonight, at 11:59 p.m. Central on Dec. 18. Volunteers staff the phones 24-7 and are based in the student residence Snyder Hall.
The event is coordinated by student resident leaders and housing professional staff who serve on a special planning committee. Volunteers can sign up in advance or walk in to help, according volunteer FAQs. Students who sing for more than five hours receive a free Dial-A-Carol shirt, and those who return the following year earn the title of “head caroler.”
Each volunteer is given a script for answering the phone, which includes asking callers their name and current location, and a binder with lyrics for the 100 most commonly requested songs. Callers can request any holiday carol they’d like, and if a volunteer is unfamiliar with the song, callers may be asked to switch their selection or if they’re OK with a badly sung rendition of their first choice.
One unique carol students sing is the Snyder Special, a parody of “Low” by Flo Rida, called the “Baby Phat Carol.”
Firsthand Source
Inside Higher Ed called the hotline at 10 a.m. Eastern on Dec. 12 and heard a lovely rendition of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” from a volunteer named Arthur.
In the early days of Dial-A-Carol, the service didn’t have singers but student radio DJs who would use turntables and holiday records to provide a carol. Students would hold the receiver of the phone to the turntable for the duration of a song and then wish them a merry Christmas.
Each year, students and other campus community members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign volunteer to sing holiday songs around the clock for a week.
Dial-A-Carol/Facebook
Inside the call room, which is covered with festive tinsel, snowflakes and other holiday-inspired décor, students maintain a call count board and a map of the U.S., coloring in each state as a new caller comes in.
Joy to Illinois: A majority of the calls come from Urbana-Champaign residents, with 2,991 callers from Illinois in 2023, but the university has a goal of receiving calls from every country and all U.S. states and territories within the first 24 hours. In 2015, students answered more than 16,000 calls from 70 countries.
In 2023, “Jingle Bells” was the top requested song, with 1,177 callers asking students to sing the tune, followed by “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” with 919 requests.
The tradition is celebrated by alumni and community members alike, both for their time volunteering or their own experiences calling the hotline.
The university has also garnered national and international recognition, being spoofed on Jimmy Kimmel in 2015 and featured on BBC Radio’s One show in 2006.
Dial-A-Carol is available at 217-332-1882 until 11:59 p.m. Central tonight.
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