A cappella Christmas songs for a choir
Not every Christmas booking wants carols. A drinks reception, an office party or a hotel lobby usually wants the songs people associate with December rather than with Advent, and most of those were written for exactly the close-harmony texture a small choir provides. This guide covers what works unaccompanied, and what does not.
Songs and carols are different jobs
A carol has a congregation in mind. It is written to be sung by people who are not singers, in unison, with harmony underneath. A Christmas song is written to be listened to, usually by one voice with a band behind it, and turning it into something four unaccompanied singers can perform means rebuilding it.
That rebuilding is why some songs land and others fall flat. The ones that work have strong harmonic movement that voices can carry on their own. The ones that fail are the ones whose appeal is mostly in the arrangement: the horn section, the sleigh bells, the production.
The practical test is whether you can hum the chord changes as well as the tune. If the song is only a melody, four voices will expose that.
The close-harmony standards
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
The most reliable song on the list. The harmony moves constantly, which gives the inner parts something to do, and it works at the quiet end of a room without dropping below what people can hear. Good early in an evening, before the volume in the room climbs.
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting)
Written for a singer with a jazz harmony underneath, and that harmony transfers to voices cleanly. It needs an alto and tenor who are comfortable with close intervals, and it wants a soloist on the melody rather than four-square block harmony.
White Christmas
The song clients ask for most. It works, but only as a solo with three voices underneath; sung as four equal parts it turns into a hymn. Give the melody to one singer and let the others move.
Winter Wonderland
Swing rhythm, and it needs the group standing still and watching each other rather than roaming. The rhythm is the whole appeal, and roaming singers cannot keep it tight.
Let It Snow
Similar territory, and a good closer for a set because it ends on an upbeat rather than a fade. Works well as the last thing before a break.
Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town
The one that gets a room joining in without being asked. Not subtle, and it does not need to be.
Songs that need more than four voices
Do You Hear What I Hear builds towards a climax that four voices cannot supply; it wants six at least. All I Want for Christmas Is You depends on rhythmic drive and a big final chorus, and unaccompanied it usually sounds like a good idea that did not survive the arrangement.
Fairytale of New York comes up in almost every enquiry. It was written for two characterful voices trading lines over a band, and choral arrangements of it flatten exactly what people like about it. We will sing it if you want it, but it is worth knowing what it becomes.
Last Christmas works better than people expect, because the chord sequence is doing most of the work and voices can carry that.
Mixing songs and carols in one set
Most bookings want both. The mix that works is roughly two-thirds carols to one-third songs for a church or a formal service, and the reverse for a party or a lobby.
Do not alternate them one for one. Group two or three carols, then two or three songs, so the set has a shape rather than a wobble. Moving between a fifteenth-century carol and a swing standard every three minutes asks a lot of a group and gives an audience no thread to follow.
The transition works better going from old to new than the other way round. A set that opens with Gaudete and finishes with Let It Snow makes sense to a room; the reverse sounds like the programme ran out of order.
What four unaccompanied voices can and cannot do
Four voices cover this repertoire well, because close-harmony writing is four-part writing by convention. One voice takes the melody and three move underneath, which is how these songs were arranged for vocal groups in the first place.
What four cannot do is provide both a soloist and a full backing texture at the same time. When the melody sits out on its own, you are hearing three voices of harmony, and in a busy room that thins out. Eight is the answer where a booking is mostly songs rather than carols and the room is loud; six where it is busier than it is big.
See our guide to the best carols for four voices for the same question applied to the carol repertoire.
Arrangements, and asking for a specific song
We hold arrangements of the standard repertoire. Anything outside it has to be arranged for the specific group, which takes a couple of weeks and needs to be commissioned when you book rather than in the fortnight before.
An arrangement written for one voice per part is not the same as a choral edition with the parts thinned out. The former is written knowing exactly who is singing each line; the latter usually leaves the texture with holes in it. This matters more for songs than for carols, because song arrangements lean harder on the inner voices.
If a particular song matters to you — a first dance, a company anthem, something with a history — say so at the point of enquiry. December rehearsal time is the scarcest resource we have.
Where these songs suit the room
Drinks receptions. Songs work better than carols here. Guests are talking, arriving across an hour, and not expecting to sing along. Close harmony sits under conversation in a way a congregational carol does not.
Seated dinners. Quiet songs between courses, with the group positioned away from the tables. This is where Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and The Christmas Song earn their place.
Hotel lobbies and afternoon teas. A mix, weighted towards songs, with the well-known carols kept for the end of each set when people have gathered.
Church services. Carols, with at most one song, and only if the incumbent is content. A carol service is not the place to discover that the vicar has views about Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.
The folk and traditional end
Between the carols proper and the twentieth-century songs sits a body of traditional material that suits unaccompanied voices better than either. The Wexford Carol, The Cherry Tree Carol, Down in Yon Forest and the Appalachian I Wonder as I Wander are modal, unhurried, and were sung without accompaniment long before anyone arranged them.
These are useful in a set that is otherwise light, because they change the temperature without slowing the room down the way a Howells anthem would. They also suit a smaller group: four voices is plenty, and in some cases a solo verse with three voices humming underneath is closer to how the material was meant to sound.
The Coventry Carol belongs in this group as much as in the carol repertoire, and it is the one piece we would put in almost any Christmas set regardless of the setting.
Sets, breaks and how long a group can sing
A standard Christmas booking runs up to an hour and a half including breaks, which in practice is three sets of about twenty minutes. Unaccompanied singing is more tiring than singing with an instrument, because there is nothing to rest against and the group is holding its own pitch throughout.
Where a venue has a piano, booking a pianist to cover the gaps keeps the room from falling silent between sets and gives the singers a genuine rest. The pianist plays through the break and drops out as the voices come back in. That is £225 on top of the singers.
If the venue has no piano at all we can bring a keyboard and speaker for an extra charge, quoted upfront in your written quote. For a booking that is mostly songs rather than carols, it is usually worth it.
Licensing
Most of these songs are still in copyright, and live performance of copyright music at a public event is normally covered by the venue’s own licence. Hotels, function venues and shopping centres almost always hold one. Churches often do not, because their usual repertoire does not need it.
For a private event on private premises the position is different again. Check with your venue rather than assuming, and if you are selling tickets, check before you sell them.
This is one of the practical reasons a church booking tends to be carols rather than songs, and it is worth knowing before you build a programme around Last Christmas.
Frequently asked questions
Which Christmas songs work a cappella?
The close-harmony standards: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, The Christmas Song, White Christmas, Winter Wonderland, Let It Snow. These have enough harmonic movement for voices to carry on their own, rather than depending on a band arrangement.
Can four singers perform Christmas songs without a piano?
Yes. Close-harmony writing is four-part writing by convention, with one voice on the melody and three moving underneath. Six is better where the booking is mostly songs and the room is noisy, because the backing texture thins when the melody sits out alone.
Will you sing a specific Christmas song on request?
Usually, if it reaches us in time. Songs already in our repertoire need no notice. Anything else has to be arranged for the specific group, which takes a couple of weeks and should be commissioned when you book rather than in the fortnight before.
Should a Christmas programme be songs or carols?
Both, weighted to the setting. Roughly two-thirds carols for a church or a formal service, and the reverse for a party, reception or hotel lobby. Group them in threes rather than alternating, so the set has a shape.
We sing carols and close-harmony Christmas songs at parties, receptions and lobbies across the UK. Tell us the room and the tone you are after, and Luca sets the running order against it.
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