The Lehighton Band is rehearsing for its annual Christmas concert, which is returning to the Lehighton Boys and Girls Band Hall.

The concert will be presented at 2 p.m. Dec. 9, and will feature a combination of well-known and less frequently played Christmas songs.

Tickets are $5 each and can be purchased from any band member or at Carbon County Music and More located inside the Boys and Girls Band Hall, Sixth and Cypress Street, Lehighton.

Tickets will be available at the door as space permits. The audience will be seated at tables complete with trays of homemade cookies, coffee, tea, cocoa and cold drinks as well.

The concert will open with a very familiar piece of music which was scored for band by Hawley Ades. This medley piece includes “Joy to the World,” “We Three Kings of Orient Are,” “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “Silent Night” and “O Come All Ye Faithful.”

The band will follow that with “Variations on an Echo Carl,” arranged by Wilford Lawshe. “Portraits of Christmas,” arranged by Warren Barker, will be next and includes snippets of “The Holly and the Ivy,” “It Came upon the Midnight Clear,” and “Joy to the World.”

The band will then play Robert Longfield’s “The Bells of Christmas.” This original piece based on “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” includes a narration and trumpet player Eliza Cressley will step away from her music stand and narrate the piece.

The band will then head to the theater and play “Christmas at the Movies,” which is arranged by John Moss. In it the audience will hear “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Somewhere in my Memory” and the “Polar Express.”

In 2020, during COVID restrictions, the band performed its concert on a cold winter night, socially distanced in the band parking lot and live streamed its concert on Facebook. During this concert, the band featured a song arranged by Vice Gassi, and has decided to once again feature music from Gassi, but this time playing two of his arrangements back-to-back his arrangement of a “Cambridge Carol,” which will be followed by “The Holly and the Ivy.”

“A Scandinavian Christmas Rhapsody” will be the band’s next number. The song is by Trevor Ford. Immediately following this piece, the band will come back to the USA playing “an American Christmas,” arranged by Robert W. Smith.

“Snow,” a song featuring songs about the white stuff, will come next. With opening narration by Joe Plechavy, it features a medley of “Frosty the Snowman,” “Let it Snow!” and “Winter Wonderland.” The band will then perform a song made famous by the popular group the Trans-Siberian Orchestra called “Appalachian Snowfall.”

“The Wonder of Christmas” is next including, “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers,” “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” “My Favorite Things,” “Toyland,” and “March of the Toys.” The Band will finish with “Christmas Finale,” which is a sing along that will be led by Plechavy, who will step away from the trombone section and sing with the audience. Songs included are “Joy to the World,” “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” and “Adeste Fidelis.”

The Lehighton Band is a nonprofit community band which performs a spring concert, Christmas concert and three summer concerts in the Lehighton Park Amphitheater. They are also available for hire for picnics, family reunions and other events.

The band is under the direction of Bradly R. Cressley.