The St John's Smith Square Christmas Festival returns for its 40th year.

6-7 December 2025, 14.00, 19.00, £18.00-£26.00
A Gospel Christmas

The London International Gospel Choir bring powerful harmonies and soaring solos as they return to Smith Square Hall. LIGC are one of the largest community-based choirs in the capital, with an ever-expanding repertoire of uplifting gospel, pop and soul.

8 December 2025, 19.30, £20.00-£42.00
Christmas Brass Spectacular

The ultimate feel-good, brass-y Christmas spectacular from the world-class LMP Brass Ensemble and award winning choirs. Your favourite holiday tunes get a bold, brassy twist in this feel-good Christmas spectacular. Featuring top-tier performances from some of the UK’s finest brass musicians and choirs, this dazzling show is guaranteed to kick off your festive season in style.

9 December 20254, 19.00, £30.00-£60.00
Handel's Messiah

Following last year’s sell-out performance, Wild Arts innovative dramatisation of Handel’s legendary oratorio returns. With singers performing from memory and staging devised by theatre and opera director Tom Morris, this enthralling and moving production has received standing ovations across the country.

11 December 2025, 19.00, £18.00-£26.00
ChristmasAround the World

Celebrate the joy of Christmas with Sinfonia Smith Square and National Youth Voices as they join forces for a concert of carols from around the world. Enjoy festive music from Mexico, Ukraine, Canada, South Africa, Estonia, as well as traditional Celtic favourites, in a kaleidoscopic programme showcasing the rich tapestry of global Christmas music.

12 December 2025, 19.30, Sold Out
Winter Tales

VOCES8 invites you to savour the sounds of the season in a programme that journeys from ancient carols and chant to contemporary reflections and festive favourites. From Praetorius and Poston to Rutter and Reena Esmail, this is winter storytelling at its most atmospheric—glowing with warmth, tenderness, and joyful cheer.

13 December 2025, 19.30, £35.00-£45.00
Christmas with the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge

The Choir of Clare College return to Smith Square Hall for their annual Christmas concert, presenting a programme of familiar and new Christmas choral music and celebrating the music of former Director of Music Sir John Rutter in his 80th birthday year.

14 December 2025, 13.30, 15.30, £15.00-£32.00
The Snowman Live in Concert

With Sinfonia Smith Square performing a live orchestral soundtrack to the film being shown on the big screen, this magical performance will leave the whole family spellbound. It’s the perfect festive treat to delight audiences of all ages.

16 December 2025, 17.00, 20.00, £22.00-£62.00
A Christmas Carol

After a successful run of performances at Smith Square Hall in 2024, Opera Holland Park brings back Will Todd’s enchanting musical retelling of A Christmas Carol. Scored for eight singers, a trio of piano, double bass and accordion, and narrator, Todd weaves the melodies of traditional Victorian carols and the midwinter chimes of handbells through each episode of Charles Dickens’s seasonal ghost story.

17 December 2025, 19.00, £18.00-£35.00
Veni Emmanuel

In the Renaissance, Advent—the weeks preceding the celebration of Christ’s birth at Christmas—was a time of wonder and reflection. Centuries-old carols tell this story, with some works presented here in their inherited form, others reimagined by skilled arrangers. This programme reaches across the ages: from the eternal beauty of the Tudor church right up to the twenty-first century, with each piece chosen to evoke a sense of mystery and joy.

18 December 2025, 13.05, £6.00
Roger Sayer Organ Recital

From the sparkling brilliance of Garth Edmundson’s Toccata-Prelude on Von Himmel Hoch to the lyrical charm of John Ireland’s The Holy Boy, this programme offers a rich mix of familiar melodies and imaginative interpretations.

18 December 2025, 19.30, £35.00-£45.00
On Christmas Night

Under the direction of Michael Waldron, and joined by acclaimed soprano Emma Bell, this programme weaves together traditional favourites and vivid new settings — offering music full of warmth, brightness and the generous spirit of the season.

19 December 2025, 19.30, £15.00-£20.00
Christmas from Queen's

Join Choir of The Queen’s College Oxford and Owen Rees for a festive programme of twentieth- and twenty-first century works by composers connected to the college, including Howells’s Three Carol-Anthems, Leighton’s Three Carols, and selections from David Bednall’s dramatic and evocative Christmas cantata Welcome all Wonders, commissioned by the choir.

20 December 2025, 14.00, 19.00, £20.00-£45.00
Mother and Child

Celebrate the season with The Tallis Scholars in a luminous programme of sacred music spanning five centuries. The theme behind this seasonal programme is the Virgin Mary, whether celebrating her own divinity (in the Votive Mass written by Byrd), or in the context of the birth of Christ (in Tallis’ epic Missa Puer natus).

22 December 2025, 19.30, £35.00-£75.00
Bach's Christmas Oratorio

Start the festive week with an evening of J.S. Bach and Schütz as part of the Sinfonia Smith Square Christmas Festival. Expect vocal, choral and instrumental virtuosity as Polyphony & the OAE join forces under the direction of Stephen Layton, for Bach’s great retelling of the nativity story.

23 December 2025, 19.30, £35.00-£75.00
Handel's Messiah

A true highlight of the Sinfonia Smith Square Christmas Festival, this special performance of Handel’s Messiah brings together conductor Stephen Layton, the acclaimed choir Polyphony, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. A stellar line-up of soloists—Hilary Cronin (soprano), Helen Charlston (mezzo-sporano), James Gilchrist (tenor), and Neal Davies (bass-baritone) —adds brilliance to this much-loved seasonal tradition.