Jingle All the Way at the Jingle Bell Jamboree

Christmas, it seems, is officially on the way.

This Saturday, the Old First Reformed Church will host its tenth annual Jingle Bell Jamboree, a family concert and sing-along that has become a Park Slope holiday tradition.

Reverend Daniel Meeter, pastor of the church and one of the event's hosts, has come to regard the annual gathering as a gateway into the Christmas season.

"After all the planning and preparation for the advent season, Jingle Bell Jamboree is when I finally start letting go," said Meeter. "It's when I really start feeling the holiday."

The Jamboree got its start in the wake of September 11, 2001, as the Old First Reformed Church became an impromptu community center for neighbors still in shock from the tragedy.

"It seemed like the community needed some place to gather," said Rev. Meeter, who became pastor of the church just a week after 9/11. Around the same time, music teacher Ethan Schlesser was using the church as a rehearsal space for the Brooklyn Youth Vocal Ensemble, a high-school show choir he had started the year before. "One of the kids said, 'Why don't we do some kind of concert for everybody? Maybe it's a time that we can bring some happiness to people by doing this.'"

"Ethan had the music, I had the sanctuary," said Rev. Meeter. "So we just put it together." And so a community tradition began, encouraged by funding and support from the Park Slope Civic Council and Park Slope Parents.  Audiences grew from a couple hundred in the first year to nearly a thousand.

Writer Burkhard Bilger has participated in the event since its early years, initially as part of a men's a cappella group. He'll be performing this year with the Old First Family String Band, alongside his wife, Jennifer Nelson, and their three children. He partly credits his long involvement with the production to Ethan Schlesser's exuberant MC style.

"He has this quality of an old New York vaudeville showman or a honky-tonk piano player," Bilger said. "He knows how to whip up a crowd."

As it has throughout most of its history, the Jingle Bell Jamboree will include an appearance by Borough President Marty Markowitz and a performance by the Brooklyn Community Chorus. This year's Jamboree will also feature the St. Joseph's High School Step Team, the P.S. 97 Show Choir, and the Brooklyn Tech High School Chorus.

In between performers, Schlesser and Meeter will host an audience sing-along of seasonal favorites, culminating in a raucous rendition of "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

The emphasis on audience participation and the experience of a community singing together in a huge group is a key part of what makes the event unique, said Schlesser. "I think that in an urban environment, to have a neighborhood feeling like this in a city is extraordinary."

The Jingle Bell Jamboree will begin at 7 p.m. at Old First Reformed Church on Seventh Avenue and Carroll Street. The suggested donation is $5 for children and $10 for adults. The Park Slope Civic Council will also be collecting toys for Toys for Tots.