White Christmas has been a holiday classic for many years! Irving Berlin wrote the song in 1940, and the first performance was by Bing Crosby on Christmas Day, 1941. Since then, the song has been covered by many people, including Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Bette Midler, and Lady Gaga!
Larry’s new arrangement of White Christmas will bring joy, and perhaps a touch of nostalgia, to your audience! It’s for handbells, handchimes, and flute. Thanks to Rose Wiersma for joining us to play the flute part on our demonstration video. Rose is a talented musician, who not only plays a variety of instruments professionally, but also directs the Zeeland Community Band. Rose is based in Holland, Michigan, and we’ve been privileged to be friends for some years now. We hope you’ll enjoy our video!
More information about this arrangement
White Christmas is for 5-7 octaves of handbells, with 2 octaves of handchimes, and an optional flute part that really adds something special!
If you’d like to find out more about this arrangement, and other arrangements and original compositions for handbell choir, visit our Choraegus website. Alternatively, click below to go directly to Sheet Music Plus!
Other holiday handbell arrangements from Choraegus
We have lots of Christmas and holiday music available from Choraegus (and Sheet Music Plus). Options include some fun-to-play secular arrangements. Click on the titles to find out more!
We were excited to be invited to Riverside, Illinois, to give a handbell duet concert as part of Ascension Lutheran Church’s 2025-26 concert series. We don’t travel out of Michigan for performances often, so it’s always fun when we can do it!
Riverside isn’t far from Chicago; about a 3-hour drive from where we live. We drove there on the Saturday, and our first task was to find the church, tucked away among the houses.
Outside Ascension Lutheran Church, in Riverside IL
A warm welcome at Ascension Lutheran Church
Ascension Lutheran Church turned out to be the perfect concert venue for us. The people are friendly and welcoming, the building is beautiful, inside and out, and it’s just a lovely space for sharing music. It can be daunting to think about presenting an entire concert with just 8-bell music, but we do appreciate the opportunity to share our handbell duets with an audience. We decided to take our handchimes with us for this concert in Riverside, for a change of mood that keeps things interesting. We were happy to be able to collaborate with two talented musicians from Chicago for several accompanied pieces too. The first of those was Shall We Gather at the River. Here’s a video from our rehearsal. This was the first time we’d played the piece through with pianist Paula Gelpi. It was also the first time Paula had heard handbells!
We played a variety of 8-bell duets, including Greensleeves, Calliope House, Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise, and Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Attende Domine proved to be a nice addition on handchimes. It seemed particularly appropriate for a concert during Lent, as it’s also known as the Lent Prose. We also included one 6-bell piece – Hyfrydol– which is one of the most challenging of our 6-bell arrangements. This piece is fast, and takes a lot of concentration. It also helps to have a skilled pianist, of course, and Paula Gelpi took it all in her stride. She took off faster than we’d expected during our first run-through before the concert, and we were glad we’d spent a lot of time working on this piece. Through gritted teeth, we kept up, and slowed it down ever-so-slightly for the actual concert.
Blessed Assurance
For the final piece of the concert, the talented Christie Miller joined us on clarinet. Here’s a rehearsal video of Blessed Assurance. It’s always a treat for us to be able to include accompanied pieces in our performances. We rehearse with mp3 practice tracks on a phone, but being able to collaborate with talented musicians is so much better! Larry originally arranged Blessed Assurance for handbells, piano and flute, but when we found out that Christie was available to join us, Larry adapted the score for clarinet too! Both options are now available, for anyone else interested in playing this arrangement:
Thanks to all at Ascension Lutheran Church!
Our thanks go to Dan McDaniel, Director of Music, and to Mary C, for the warm welcome to Ascension Lutheran Church. We’re also grateful to Paula and Christie for sharing their talents so generously with us. Thank you to everyone who came to our concert!
Our 2025 holiday handbell performances are finished! It’s time to thank everyone involved, and to look back at a fun December of duet-ringing!
We had busy holiday performance season this year. We were very fortunate with the weather, and the fact that we didn’t have to travel long distances to get to any of our Christmas gigs. That’s very helpful in Michigan. Our Christmas handbell performances are often booked months in advance, and there’s no way to know what the weather’s going to do! We just hope for the best, and remember to allow extra time for travel. We’ve never been late for any of our holiday handbell performances yet!
Here are some of the highlights from our 2025 holiday season:
Handbells on WOOD TV8
Our holiday performance season began early this year, with a short-notice booking for November 19th! This was for an appearance on the WOOD TV8 Daybreak show. The show was being presented live from the Christkindl Markt in Grand Rapids. Even though we wouldn’t be playing handbells while the market was open, we were invited to go and add to the holiday atmosphere with some Christmas ringing. This involved waking up at 3:30am, and arriving at the market at 5:15am on a very cold day! Still, we had fun, and we met Santa while we were there! Interestingly, the Santa we met there was not the official Christkindl Markt Santa. He was a very good one, though!
Trying not to look too cold, in Grand Rapids early in the morning
Glad to be back indoors for a while!
After that wintry start to our holiday performances, we were thankful to be indoors for a candlelight Advent evening in Marne. This was a nice opportunity to play some of our “it’s not quite Christmas yet” pieces, although we were happy to fulfil a surprise request for Jingle Bells at the end of the evening!
Later in December, we were welcomed back to The Village at the Pines in Grand Haven, where we enjoyed sharing some Advent and Christmas handbell duets with residents. It’s always such a friendly place! Several of the residents (and a staff member) played Jingle Bells on handchimes, and did very well. We have a version that uses words instead of music notation, and that makes it easier, although a couple of the residents had played handbells before, and their experience definitely showed!
For the first time, we shared our handbell music at The Warm Friend (Resthaven) in Holland, and appreciated all the interesting questions we received from the audience. We felt as if we could have stayed all afternoon and talked about handbells with the residents there! We took extra handbells and handchimes with us to this performance, so we added a smaller percussion table to the side of our usual table. This enabled us to demonstrate Savior of the Nations, Come on lower bells than we’d usually use, and to use handchimes for a couple of our pieces too.
A larger-than-usual set-up at The Warm Friend
Handbells at the Kerstmarkt-Holland
We enjoyed two evenings ringing at the Kerstmarkt in downtown Holland. We’ve been playing at this European-style Christmas market for some years now, and we always love it there. This year, we were very fortunate with the weather. We had just a few flurries of gently swirling snow, but the temperature on both evenings was mild by Michigan winter standards. We were wearing multiple layers of clothing, which helped a lot too, and we were grateful for the loan of a heater from Shady Side Farm. This holiday market is always such a fun, festive event, and it turns out that Santa and Mrs Claus love handbell music too!
So many layers of clothing, and we have a feeling Santa and Mrs Claus had the same idea!
Another cold (but festive) evening at Otsego Hometown Christmas
Thanks to Otsego District Public Library for sponsoring our evening at Otsego Hometown Christmas! This is always a chilly event to play at, but the warmth of the welcome makes up for it, and this year we particularly loved how many children came to listen to our handbell music. They asked interesting questions too, and it was an opportunity for us to educate as well as to entertain. This is a wonderful community event, and we’re always happy to be part of it.
Holiday handbell performances outdoors can be cold, but so much fun!
A concert with the Zeeland Community Band
We joined our friends at the Zeeland Community Band for their concert at Freedom Village. This concert included some pieces that were familiar to us, and others that were new. We played a 15-minute prelude, then three of our own pieces in the middle of the concert, and added our handbells to three of the band’s pieces. The concert was very well attended, and was a wonderful way to share the spirit of Christmas with this retirement community in Holland. We also appreciated being able to play our recent arrangement of Ring the Bells, accompanied by the band’s director Rose Wiersma on piano. We didn’t get a video of the performance, but here’s our recording at home, so you’ll get the idea.
Another performance at the Gary Byker Memorial Library of Hudsonville
We were pleased to be invited back to the library in Hudsonville for another holiday handbell performance. This was our seventh year at this Ringing in Christmas event hosted by the Friends of the Library, and after last December’s slightly-too-exciting drive through the snow, we were thankful for much kinder weather this time! The event is always popular, and audience members appreciate homemade treats provided by the Friends, and the opportunity to ask all their burning questions about handbells! Well, we like to think they have burning questions, of course, even though they’ve probably had them all answered by now. Thanks to audience member Steve Snow for this photo of us in action!
Deep in concentration at Hudsonville Libary’s Ringing in Christmas program. (Photo credit: Steve Snow)
Handbells in worship during Advent
We have quite a lot of Advent hymns for just eight bells now, but it’s still rare for us to be invited to play in churches here in Michigan during the run-up to Christmas. This December, we played at three churches; one on the third Sunday of Advent, in Grand Haven, and two on Christmas Eve, in Holland and Kalamazoo.
Handbell duets at the Advent service at St. Paul’s UCC in Grand Haven, Michigan
Playing in two different places made for a busy Christmas Eve and a very late night/early morning. It was worth it, though, because there’s something so special about welcoming Christmas morning with handbells, especially when candlelight is involved.
Lots of activity on our Facebook page!
Apart from our handbell duet performances, and concerts with Kalamazoo Ringers, we also recorded and shared a lot of handbell duets on our Facebook page during the run-up to Christmas. If you didn’t catch up with us at any of our performances, we encourage you to look at Facebook and watch our videos (now called Reels). We hope you’ll enjoy continuing to celebrate Christmas with us online!
Special thanks to those who made our 2025 holiday handbell performances possible:
WOOD-TV 8 Kerstmarkt-Holland Shady Side Farm, Holland, MI St. Mary Catholic Church, Marne, MI The Village at the Pines, Grand Haven, MI Zeeland Community Band Otsego District Public Library, MI Zeeland Community Band Resthaven The Warm Friend, Holland, MI Friends of the Gary Byker Library, Hudsonville, MI Internet Archive St. Pauls United Church of Christ, Grand Haven, MI Providence Church, Holland, MI First United Methodist Church, Kalamazoo, MI and others who booked us for private events.
“I want a hippopotamus for Christmas Only a hippopotamus will do I don’t want a doll, no dinky Tinkertoy I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy.“
I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas is a song from 1950 by John Rox. In 1953, Gayla Peevey, a ten-year old from Oklahoma City, OK, recorded it with Mitch Miller’s orchestra as the supporting cast. It’s been a holiday classic ever since – and now it’s available for 3 octaves of handbells (plus optional D7).
Here’s our demonstration video. We had so much fun recording this!
More information about I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
You can find out more about this arrangement on our Choraegus music site, but if you want to play it, you’ll need to go to Sheet Music Plus to purchase the downloadable score. This site has been a huge help with publishing arrangements of songs that are still under copyright, especially when communicating directly with copyright holders proved to be less than successful. We hope you’ll want to put I Want a Hippopotamus on your Christmas wishlist!
We hope you’ll enjoy browsing our selection of handbell music on Sheet Music Plus. You’ll find more of Larry’s arrangements there soon! If there are any popular songs you’d like to see an arrangement for, you’re always welcome to contact us to suggest it. As always, if you have any questions, please let us know!
ENGELBERG is a popular hymn tune that’s been used as a setting for hymns such as We Know That Christ is Raised, All Praise to Thee, for Thou, O King Divine, and When in our Music, God is Glorified. That makes it a very versatile hymn for use throughout the church year.
We now have a Surprisingly Easy arrangement for just 8 bells!
More information about this 8-bell arrangement
Sheet music for ENGELBERG is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. Our Surprisingly Easy 8-bell music is a suitable for 2-4 ringers, and is particularly useful for quartets, and small groups in need of music that can be performed with a limited amount of rehearsal time.
Purchasing an 8-bell arrangement from Choraegus gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group. Please don’t pay for more copies than you need to! Purchase also gives you permission to use this piece in online and live-streamed worship services. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title (Now Thank We All Our God) and arranger (Larry Sue) on video-sharing sites and social media.
Please note that Choraegus music is designed to be downloaded as PDFs. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail.
If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this with pictures, to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a stress-free way.
If you have any questions about our music, we recommend reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help!
“Christ, whose glory fills the skies, Christ, the true and only Light, Sun of righteousness, arise, triumph o’er the shade of night; Day-spring from on high, be near; Day-star, in my heart appear.“
Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies is an 18th-century hymn by Charles Wesley. Here’s our new 8-bell arrangement of the RATISBON hymn tune. It’s one of our Surprisingly Easy arrangements!
More information about this 8-bell arrangement of Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies
Sheet music for Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. Our Surprisingly Easy 8-bell music is a great choice for quartets, and small groups in need of music that can be performed with a limited amount of rehearsal time.
Purchasing an 8-bell arrangement from Choraegus gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group. Please don’t pay for more copies than you need to! Purchase also gives you permission to use this piece in online and live-streamed worship services. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title (Now Thank We All Our God) and arranger (Larry Sue) on video-sharing sites and social media.
Please note that Choraegus music is designed to be downloaded as PDFs. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail.
If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this with pictures, to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a stress-free way.
If you have any questions about our music, we recommend reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help!
This year has seen an exciting development; after years of publishing handbell music only on our Choraegus website, Larry has branched out, just slightly, and now has several pieces available from Sheet Music Plus. The SMP site has been a huge help when arranging titles that are still under copyright, especially when communicating with copyright holders directly proved to be less than successful.
We’re excited about our recent Christmas arrangements! The first is Larry’s arrangement of Winter Wonderland. Richard Bernhard Smith wrote the lyrics for this song in 1934, and Felix Bernard added the tune. There have now been more than 200 covers of this music!
Sleigh bells ring – are you listenin’? In the lane snow is glist’nin’, A beautiful sight, We’re happy tonight. Walkin’ in a Winter Wonderland!
Our five-octave handbell arrangement is Level 5, which makes it a fun challenge for handbell choirs. We enjoyed making our demonstration video!
“Silver bells, silver bells, It’s Christmas time in the city, Ring-a-ling, hear them ring, Soon it will be Christmas Day.“
This 3-7 octave Level 4 arrangement provides an opportunity to feature handchimes or “alternate bells”. We used Silver Melody Bells in our demonstration, but you could use Whitechapel handbells, or Petit and Fritsens if you have them. Maybe even a bell tree! Alternatively, just use chimes, or stick with all bells. You’ll still be transported back to Christmas time in a city long ago!
Another Christmas arrangement is I Wonder as I Wander. In 1933, John Jacob Niles heard a bit of music from Annie Morgan, a Appalachian girl, and used it as the basis of his song. This medium-difficulty arrangement for just 8 handbells provides ample room to express the interpretation of the carol. Two transpositions, F5-A6 and Eb5-G6, are provided, the latter fitting within the range of a two-octave set of handbells. We enjoyed having a snowy backdrop for our demonstration video, because the snow arrived early in Michigan last winter, and stayed for a while!
Continuing with Christmas music, Carol of the Drum is one of our most popular 8-bell arrangements. Written by Katherine Davis in 1941, the tune is based on a traditional Czech Christmas carol, and most often known as Little Drummer Boy. Our 8-bell arrangement is available in two versions; one more straightforward than the other.
This popular Harry Bollbank song is now available for 8 handbells, with piano accompaniment. Both the handbell part and the piano part are straightforward to play.
Moving away from the holiday season, and towards the sunny summer months, Bring Me Sunshine was written by Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee in 1966. In the UK, it was used for many years as the theme song for the popular comedy show Morecambe & Wise. Larry’s arrangement is for 3 octaves of handbells, and it’s fun to play. If you need a charming, lighthearted selection for your spring program, this Level 3 arrangement fills the bill!
The beautiful, haunting classical guitar work Cavatina was written by Stanley Myers. It was based on music originally written for the movie The Walking Stick in 1970. Myers expanded the piece, and it was recorded by guitarist John Williams. It’s now most famous as the theme tune for the 1978 film The Deer Hunter. Larry’s arrangement of Cavatina is for 3 or 5 octaves of handbells.
We hope you’ll enjoy browsing our selection of handbell music on Sheet Music Plus. You’ll find more of Larry’s arrangements there soon! If there are any popular songs you’d like to see an arrangement for, you’re always welcome to contact us to suggest it. As always, if you have any questions, please let us know!
“Ring the bells, ring the bells, let the whole world know Christ was born in Bethlehem many years ago.“
Ring the Bells by Harry Bollback has been a Christmas favorite since 1958. We now have an easy arrangement of this popular song, for 8 handbells and piano.
More information about this arrangement
Ring the Bells is an accompanied 8-bell arrangement. We demonstrate it as a 4-in-hand duet, but it’s suitable for 2-4 ringers, and sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Sheet Music Plus. The PDF package includes complete score for handbells and piano, separate handbell part, and separate piano part. Two transpositions (G major and F major) are provided.
We hope you’ll enjoy looking at the handbell arrangements we have available on Sheet Music Plus. You’ll find even more available from our Choraegus website! If you have any questions about our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. Just about every question anyone’s ever asked us is there, along with answers. Please contact us if you don’t find the information you need, and we’ll be happy to help.
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is one of the most popular hymns for the Advent and Christmas season. We were recently asked for a straightforward 2-3 octave arrangement, designed for beginning and improving handbell choirs.
Here’s our demonstration video of this Level 1+ piece.
More information about this 2-3 octave arrangement
This arrangement of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is written with beginning/improving handbell choirs in mind. There are lots of chords, and lots of quarter notes; ideal for less-confident ringers. It’s a no-frills arrangement, and you can add as many repeats as you need. This arrangement is also suitable to be played on handchimes if you prefer. Sheet music is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. We offer the full choir license at a bargain price for this “no frills” arrangement. Purchase gives you our no-fuss permission to print up to 15 copies for your group.
Your purchase of the full-choir license allows you to perform, broadcast and live-stream this piece as part of a concert or worship service. There’s no need for any additional license or fee. We ask that youcredit the arranger (Larry Sue) and publisher (Choraegus) in any printed media such as concert programs, and online (in video descriptions). Please see our licensing agreement for full details.
We appreciate your help in spreading the word about Choraegus handbell music. If you record a video of your group playing any of our pieces, we’d love to see it. You’re welcome to share it with us by email or on our Facebook page!
Please note that Choraegus handbell music is designed to come to you as a downloadable PDF file. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this guide to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.
Any questions?
If you have any questions about O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, or any of our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If someone has asked us a question even once, it will be there, along with the answer. Please contact us if you don’t find the information you need, and we’ll be happy to help.
Now Thank We All Our God is a wonderful year-round hymn that often makes increased appearances in worship services at this time of year, when harvest and Thanksgiving are on our minds! The tune NUN DANKET was written by Johann Crüger in 1647. Our new handbell arrangement is scored for 16 handbells and piano, and is suitable for 4-8 ringers.
“Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices, Who wondrous things has done, in whom his world rejoices; Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.“
More information about Now Thank We All Our God
This arrangement is available for purchase and download from Choraegus. A piano accompaniment mp3 is also available, and this can be useful for rehearsals, or if you don’t have a piano or pianist available.
Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to eight copies for your handbell group. Don’t pay for more copies than you need! Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please be sure to mention the arranger of the piece (Larry Sue) and the publisher (Choraegus) on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs. We appreciate your help in getting the word out about Choraegus, and we’d love to see a video if you record one with your ensemble!
Please note that our sheet music is designed to be downloaded as PDFs. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail.
If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide, designed to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.
Any questions?
If you have any questions about our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. You’ll find just about every question anyone has ever asked us, along with answers. However, if you don’t find what you’re looking for, please ask us!
