Street corner caroling competition gets figgy in Seattle

The streets of downtown Seattle are filled once a year with hundreds of people singing Christmas carols, or a wacky version of them, for the annual Great Figgy Pudding Street Corner Caroling Competition. Thirty-nine teams are competing for various titles tonight, Friday. Nearly 10,000 spectators came to the event last year.

Some of the teams change the lyrics of traditional tunes to sing about everything from the joys of coffee to solar power. At least one team, the Emerald City Cloggers, dances to Christmas songs.

The contest is a fundraiser for the Pike Market Senior Center and Food Bank, an organization that helps homeless men, women and families. Zoe Freeman helps run the center and is the head "Figglet." She organizes the competition and hopes it will raise one hundred thousand dollars this year to help meet the nonprofit's growing needs. 

The food bank often serves 300 people in one day, and by this past October the Senior Center fed more people than in all of last year. 

Tonight's event gets started at 5pm in Westlake Center.