Christmas Carols for Choir – A Comprehensive Overview with Recommendations from the Schott Repertoire

Christmas is one of the most important times of the year for choirs, and hardly any other repertoire offers as much variety as Christmas carols for choirs. Whether you are a mixed choir, children's choir, youth choir, church choir or a contemporary emsemble, there is a wide selection of suitable pieces to choose from.

This article provides a comprehensive overview of Christmas carols for choirs, based on the publications of Schott Music, and can help you quickly find suitable pieces for your Christmas programme.

What makes a good Christmas carol for choir?

Several factors come into play when selecting Christmas carols for choir. The following criteria will help you find your way around.

Instrumentation and Voice Range

Schott Music offers choral arrangements for different choir formations, including:

• Mixed Choir (SATB)

• Women's Choir (SSA)

• Men's Choir (TTB)

• Children's Choir / youth choir

This allows you to tailor your Christmas programme specifically to your own ensemble.

Stylistic Orientation

There is a particularly wide range of styles – from traditional to modern Christmas carols for choir:

• Traditional German Christmas carols
  e.g. Süßer die Glocken nie klingen (Sweetly the bells never ring)

• International carols
  e.g. We Wish You a Merry Christmas

• Modern Christmas Carols for Choir
  e.g. from the Xmas World series

• Spirituals & International Settings
  e.g. Mary Had a Baby

This allows choirs to create programmes that sound classical, modern or mixed.

Occasion and Performance Situation

Different Christmas carols are suitable for different events:

• Church concerts: calm, solemn movements

• Christmas market / open air: lively classics that appeal to the audience

• School & music school concerts: easy movements, also for children's choirs

• Modern concert programmes: contemporary harmonies and rhythms

The Schott repertoire offers suitable options for every setting.

Top 5 Christmas Carols for Choir

This top 5 selection is based exclusively on the Christmas editions listed in the Schott catalogue. All pieces are versatile and are frequently requested in the choir world.

Jingle Bells - from Chor together When choirs meet at Christmas concerts and want to sing songs together, they now have the right literature: All songs in Chor together are in the same key for all instrumentations and can be sung by mixed choirs as well as women's or men's choirs. The instrumentations can thus be combined in a variety of ways and different choirs can each contribute ‘their’ part. The clearly arranged score helps the choir director to bring the choirs together.   Buy now

We Wish You a Merry Christmas - from Chor Together All songs in Chor Together are in the same key for all instrumentations and can be sung by mixed choirs as well as female or male choirs. The instrumentations can therefore be combined in a variety of ways, and different choirs can each contribute ‘their’ part.   Buy now

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht (Silent Night, Holy Night) - from Merry Christmas Whether for festive Advent concerts, atmospheric Christmas services or simply for singing together during the most wonderful time of the year, this new anthology offers a diverse selection of German and English Christmas carols in easy to moderately difficult arrangements for three-part choir (SAB) a cappella.   Buy now

Mary had a Baby - from Xmas World Twelve choral and piano arrangements for the Christmas season: including classics such as ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘Silent Night’, as well as lesser-known international Christmas carols. The individual arrangements are flexible in their use; they work in three-part mixed voice, but also in one or two-part arrangements, with piano accompaniment or a cappella. At the same time, the individual pieces are so varied that they are suitable for joint performance in concert. With modern and ‘popular’ harmonies and varied rhythms, this Christmas collection is ideal for young choirs.   Buy now

O du fröhliche - from O little Town of Bethlehem Chor zu dritt appeals to the many choirs that are unable to do justice to the mostly four-part choral literature with its division into high and low male voices, or can only do so inadequately.   In Volume 5, O Little Town of Bethlehem, singers can look forward to many national and international Advent and Christmas carols. This means that concerts during the Christmas season will be a success even with a male voice!   Buy now

Christmas Carols for Children's Choirs

What matters:

• Clear melodies

• Limited range

• Easy two-part harmony

Many titles from the easier Schott series are well suited.