This holiday season has looked a lot different. While some traditions remain unchanged – trimming the tree, making latkes and gingerbread houses, lighting candles – others are just not possible. Getting together for concerts, services, and caroling will have to wait until next year, but thankfully there are many virtual options. These creative alternatives can all be enjoyed from the comfort of your couch, Christmas jammies on and hot chocolate (or hot toddy!) in hand.
Below, the UrbanArias team shares some of our holiday traditions and ways that we will be celebrating this year. What are you missing this year? If you’ve found a good virtual replacement, let us know about it!
Robert Wood, Founder & Artistic Director:
“I listen to different recordings of the Messiah and carols while decorating the tree. (The John Eliot Gardiner recording with the Monteverdi Choir is a good one.) This has not changed. What was different is how early I put up my tree this year (December 3!). I needed the holiday energy. So I started my rotation with King’s College Advent Lessons and Carols, since it was, you know, barely Advent. For the purists out there.”
Susan Derry, President:
“In a normal year I’d be gearing up to pinch hit with my childhood church choir – a super-fun group of folks with whom it’s always a pleasure to spend a very long Midnight Mass. But that’s not possible this year. So I’m getting my holiday musical kicks by doing a solo show – it’s a lot more work but it’s also safer. I’m excited to spread some holiday cheer, Derry-Christmas style.”
For a beautiful online Christmas Eve service, sign up to view mass at the Washington National Cathedral! And you can watch Susan’s delightful cabaret through the end of the month: Buy tickets here: Holiday Cabarets from Creative Cauldron.
Paul Peers, Artistic Administrator:
“Here in Australia, we celebrate our summer Christmas by listening to Carols (generally my family lean toward the crooning versions of Sinatra or Dean Martin) while eating chilled cooked prawns (shrimp) and the dessert called Pavlova or commonly known as ‘Pav’. Pavlova is a popular summer dessert of lightly baked meringue topped with sweetened whipped cream (Or Creme Chantilly) and fresh fruit (generally various berries of some sort), very delicious and cool in the summer heat. The ‘Pav’ is named after Anna Pavlova, a Russian ballet dancer who toured Australia early last century.”
Alysa Turner, Marketing Director:
“Every year I get dressed up with friends and go see the NSO’s Messiah at the Kennedy Center. That can’t happen this year unfortunately but I am loving all the new streaming options and am looking forward to enjoying some of them over the Holidays! As a marketer, I’ve also been fascinated by the rise of the crowd-sourced TikTok musical based on Pixar’s Ratatouille – which has a benefit concert performance to support the Actor’s Fund on New Year’s Day!”
Anne-Carolyn Bird, Executive Director:
“My favorite traditions have always been home-based, so this year isn’t much different: making cookies, watching holiday movies, decorating a Gingerbread House that we will smash on New Year’s Day… Christmas Eve for me has always included a listening of Menotti’s Amahl & the Night Visitors. Thankfully that isn’t a tradition impacted by the pandemic! I always listen to the 1951 NBC Television recording. The Mother’s music used to always bore me a little when I was a kid; now that I’m a mother, I recognize it as the real meat of the opera. “Have You Seen a Child” makes me cry every time.”
However you celebrate this year, we hope you are healthy, safe, and surrounded by music! We look forward to seeing you – online and in person! – at the opera in 2021!
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year,
UrbanArias