City Centre Christmas Carol Services

What better way to get into the true Christmas spirit than to join a Christmas Carol concert?

There are numerous Christmas Carol Concerts throughout Greater Manchester in the advent to choose from. Here we focus on some in the city centre. 

Manchester Cathedral hosts several Christmas Carol concerts before Christmas. The cathedral's Family Carols is on 17 December where Manchester Cathedral's Voluntary Choir will perform along with 'Flute Salad'. The cathedral also offers a free Christmas Carol Sing-along on 19 December, where guests are encouraged to just show up and join in the singing. 

Christmas on Broadway is a family concert featuring the Manchester Show Choir, also at Manchester Cathedral on 18 December. Guests are promised a selection of Christmas sing-a-long songs and carols performed along with hits from Evita, Les Miserables and more Broadway musicals. 

At noon on Christmas Eve the Manchester Cathedral holds it ever popular Blessing of the Crib and Children´s Nativity service where the Christmas story is retold in a dramatic manner along with carol singing. It's a Christmas service specially suited for familes and children. Click here

St Ann's Church there will be several Carol Services, most of them for specific schools or groups. But to celebrate the advent St Ann's will hold their Carols by Candlelight at 3pm on Christmas Eve, open to everyone. Click here  

St Mary’s RC, ‘The Hidden Gem’, will be running Schools Advent Carol Services every weekday after lunchtime mass. Click here 

The Bridgewater Hall will host their Carols By Candlelight on 22 December where carols and seasonal classics from the likes of Bach, Handel and Mozart will be perfomed by the Canzonetta Choir, Mozart Festival Orchestra and soprano Anna Devin, with the aid of conducter Stuart Stratford. There will also be a Christmas Carol Sing-a-long at the Bridgewater Hall on Christmas Eve where Jonathan Cohen leads the singing, clapping, stamping crowd through a jamboree of carols and festive songs. Click here 

Of course another possibility is to take the Christmas Carol idea further and leave the city centre briefly and take a trip to see Scrooge at the Lowry, a show based on Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. It stars Tommy Steele as Ebenezer Scrooge and while not of a sing-along character is sure to be fun. Click here