--- title: Cafeteria Worker Serves Up Amazing Christmas Karaoke Song description: Becky Alderfer surprised the noisy cafeteria with her caroling. canonical: https://time.com/4160981/becky-alderfer-cafeteria-worker-christmas-karaoke/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-24T14:48:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:55.809Z og:title: Cafeteria Worker Shocks Students With Amazing Christmas Karaoke Performance og:description: Becky Alderfer surprised the full cafeteria with her caroling og:url: https://time.com/4160981/becky-alderfer-cafeteria-worker-christmas-karaoke/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cafeteria Worker Shocks Students With Amazing Christmas Karaoke Performance twitter:description: Becky Alderfer surprised the full cafeteria with her caroling twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Cafeteria Worker Shocks Students With Amazing Christmas Karaoke Performance > Sponsored content. 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Watch the members break down their "Cheerleader" cover and their original song "Can't Sleep Love"_  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Dec 24, 2015 2:48 PM UTC  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Dec 24, 2015 2:48 PM UTC A [star was born](http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Lunch-Lady-Karaoke-Souderton-High-School-Becky-Alderfer-363404991.html) at the Souderton High School Teacher’s Karaoke in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. Becky Alderfer, 52, a cafeteria worker at the school, stepped up to the mic at the lunchtime fundraiser for the school’s United Nations Club. When she belted the first high note of her song choice, _“_Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” the chattering cafeteria quieted down and paid attention, NBC reports. “I think it surprised them that the lunch lady started singing,” Alderfer [said](http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Lunch-Lady-Karaoke-Souderton-High-School-Becky-Alderfer-363404991.html). “I thought \[the song\] had a nice message and I felt like I knew it well enough that I could get through it.” Alderfer’s musical abilities haven’t exactly been untapped; she’s served as the musical director for a church in the area for more than 30 years. Though students may not have known about her singing background, Alderfer’s colleagues were aware and convinced her to take part in the fundraiser. \[[_NBC Philadelphia_](http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Lunch-Lady-Karaoke-Souderton-High-School-Becky-Alderfer-363404991.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4160981/becky-alderfer-cafeteria-worker-christmas-karaoke/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4160981/becky-alderfer-cafeteria-worker-christmas-karaoke/"},"headline":"Cafeteria Worker Shocks Students With Amazing Christmas Karaoke Performance","datePublished":"2015-12-24T14:48:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:02:55.809Z","description":"Becky Alderfer surprised the noisy cafeteria with her caroling","url":"https://time.com/4160981/becky-alderfer-cafeteria-worker-christmas-karaoke/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Appreciation","Holidays"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4160981/becky-alderfer-cafeteria-worker-christmas-karaoke/","name":"Cafeteria Worker Shocks Students With Amazing Christmas Karaoke Performance"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch Pentatonix Break Down Their Sound","description":"Watch the members break down their \"Cheerleader\" cover and their original song \"Can't Sleep Love\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YKVkbitO/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-10-22T22:38:02.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YKVkbitO.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4160981/becky-alderfer-cafeteria-worker-christmas-karaoke/","duration":"PT3M4S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4160981/becky-alderfer-cafeteria-worker-christmas-karaoke/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```