Category Archives: Christmas and Holiday Performances

Our 2023 Holiday Handbell Performances

2024 is here, and our 2023 holiday handbell performances are finished. As we pack away our carols and start thinking about what’s next, we’d like to thank everyone who helped to make December 2023 a fun month for us!

A quieter-than-usual holiday season

The 2023 holiday season was probably the quietest one we’ve had since the pandemic. We were invited to perform at several events outside Michigan, which would have been exciting. Ultimately, though, we ended up sticking with bookings in an area very local to us. Our run-up to Christmas began with a couple of outdoor performances at the Kerstmarkt in downtown Holland. We always enjoy starting our Christmas ringing at this European-style Christmas market. It’s a fun way to practice ringing for a couple of hours at a time, even in icy weather. This time we even had our photo taken with Sinterklaas! We didn’t actually manage to persuade him to do any handbell-ringing, though.

Sinterklaas and handbells at Kerstmarkt Holland

An event that was new to us in 2023 was the Otsego Hometown Christmas. This was another outdoor performance, and wow, it was cold! It was a fun community event, though, and it was very well attended. The Otsego District Library sponsored our performance at the Hometown Christmas, and we’ll be going back there in April, to give a handbell duet presentation in the library.

2023 holiday handbell performances - Handbell ringers at Otsego Hometown Christmas

Handbell duet concerts and demonstrations

Christmas 2023 marked our return to Freedom Village in Holland; the first time we’d given a performance for the residents there since 2018! We also enjoyed sharing our music with the Century Club in Holland, and for the seniors of Chester Township. We made a return to Hudsonville Library, and also to the Village at the Pines in Grand Haven. The Century Club had requested a demonstration of our 19th-century Taylor handbells from England. Last time we played for that group, our Taylor bells were over in Ireland, being restored. We enjoyed being able to play them this Christmas, because they’re so different from our usual bells. You can see them on the table in the photo below:

Another Christmas performance with the Zeeland Community Band

One of our favorite 2023 holiday handbell performances was the Zeeland Community Band Christmas concert. This band just gets bigger and better with every passing year! This year’s Christmas concert was thoroughly festive, with some really good music by the band. This was how they looked from where we were, at the side of the stage:

2023 holiday handbell performances - Zeeland Community Band Christmas

Advent and Christmas worship services

We enjoyed playing handbell duets in Advent services at Ridge Point Community Church here in Holland. It was fun to play in the service on the first Sunday of Advent, then again in the Christmas Eve services on the Saturday evening and the Sunday morning as Christmas Day approached. We always enjoy the Christmas Eve services at this church, and we approved of the purple lighting this year!

Handbells Ridge Point Community Church

Our final Christmas event of the season was at Glenn United Methodist Church, at the very end of the year. We played a total of six 8-bell duets in that service, to a small but friendly and appreciative congregation. The pastor gave a sermon about bells and Christmas, which we really appreciated. There’s definitely something special about bells at that time of year. Yes, we may be biased, but we believe it! It’s a very special church community, in a historic building, and we appreciated the turn-of-the-century architecture there. We also loved having the opportunity to chat and have coffee with the congregation afterwards. When the service was finished, and the coffee cups were put away, we went for a nice walk around the area. If you ever get the opportunity to visit Glenn (not far from South Haven), you should!

Glenn United Methodist Church, Michigan

Glenn United Methodist Church, Grand Haven

Thank you to all for your support and encouragement in 2023!

As we start our new year, and look forward to snow finally arriving in our part of Michigan (fingers crossed!), we’d like to thank everyone for your friendship and encouragement in our busy holiday season. If you booked us for a performance, thank you! If you came to one of our concerts, or chatted with us after a worship service, thank you too! To the people who made coffee or tea for us, put money into our tip jar at the Kerstmarkt, or gave us flowers; thank you. If you prayed for us, sent us a Christmas card, or wished us safe travels, we appreciate you too.

Finally, thanks to everyone who bought music from Choraegus, liked or shared videos from our Facebook page, and generally helped to keep us smiling during our busiest month of the year. We appreciate you all, and wish you good health and happiness in 2024!

2023 holiday handbell performances - Larry and Carla

A busy month of holiday handbell performances

Christmas Day has been and gone, but we’re determined to celebrate the full twelve days of Christmas. We’re at the blissful stage of the year when we can finally take a break, catch our breath, and relax after a busy month of holiday handbell performances!

The holiday season is always our favorite time of year. We get the chance to go out and share our Christmas handbell music, meet new people, and visit new places. We were fortunate that the recent snowy-blizzard weather waited until the second half of December to hit West Michigan, so we didn’t have to make any long drives in bad conditions. It’s always a risk when we arrange our holiday performance schedule, because we all know how unpredictable Michigan winter weather can be! Having said that, we’ve lived in Michigan since 2016, so we’re more used to driving through the snow now. Remember when we drove six hours a day for Larry’s radiation treatment in the winter of 2021? If we can survive that, we can survive anything!

Our 2022 holiday performances

Our 2022 holiday performance season began early this year, on November 19th, with our first of three performances at the Kerstmarkt. This Christmas market in Downtown Holland is always a highlight of our holiday season, but this year was a bit different! The opening day of the Kerstmarkt arrived on a day when snow was falling, and the temperature was… well, chilly, to say the least. Still, we’ve never cancelled a performance yet, so we were determined that this one would go ahead. We still managed to have fun, and we admired the courage of anyone who came out to shop in such terrible weather!

Handbells in the snow

For anyone worrying about our handbells and how they cope with extreme cold, we did take some precautions. We took the bells out into the garage a couple of hours before the performance, so that they’d get used to the drop in temperature gradually. We also didn’t play them too loudly when we got to the event. When we play in the cold, we always notice the change in the way the bells sound, so we don’t put any undue strain on them. There are some bells that really, really don’t like the cold, and they simply refuse to play, so we generally leave everything higher than G6 in the case, and don’t play any pieces that involve any “unhappy” bells.

Holiday handbell performances - Kerstmarkt bell ringers in the snow

Fortunately, we had two more opportunities to play at the Kerstmarkt. The weather was never as fierce as that first session, and we even had a bit of sunshine and blue sky!

Kerstmarkt Holland handbell duo

We were privileged to be invited to perform two duet concerts during Advent. The first was at First United Methodist Church in Kalamazoo, as part of their lunchtime Advent Concert Series. It was wonderful to be able to share our music in such a beautiful space.

Advent handbell concert in Kalamazoo

Our second concert was at Second Reformed Church in Zeeland. We performed as part of their Second Series: Sublime Art in a Sacred Space concert series. We didn’t have piano accompaniment this time; just an hour of seasonal handbell duets. It was fun to meet and chat with audience members at the post-concert reception.

Second Reformed Church Zeeland handbell concert

“Return visit” handbell performances

We’re always pleased to be invited back to give handbell duet performances for groups we’ve played for in past years. This year was our fourth Christmas performance at the Gary Byker Memorial Library in Hudsonville. It’s always a popular event, run by the Friends of the Library. We also spent another evening in concert with the Zeeland Community Band. We’ve been at the ZCB Christmas concert since 2016, and it’s become an annual tradition for us. The band has been growing in number over the last few years, and they sound better than ever! We made return visits to several senior communities and local organizations this year too.

Corporate parties are some of our favorite holiday events, and we had fun playing at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids. We played Christmas music to welcome guests as they arrived at the party.

Concerts with the Kalamazoo Ringers

This December, we also enjoyed playing in a couple of concerts as part of the Kalamazoo Ringers. We took part in the annual Christmas in Kalamazoo event and the group’s Christmas concert at Grace Harbor Church. We even played one of Larry’s arrangements – Gaudete – and the full concert is now available to watch on YouTube.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this holiday season fun!

If you booked us for a performance or Christmas program or wrote a review of our performance – thank you. If you came to one of our concerts, we appreciate you too! To all those who offered us coffee or a meal, chatted with us, or prayed for us – thank you. We enjoyed sharing our handbell music with you, and we hope 2023 will be a happy and healthy year for you all!

A Concert for the Monday Musical Club

The Monday Musical Club is a non-profit organisation dedicated to music education and promotion of creative and performing arts. Based in St. Joseph, Michigan, they hold a wide variety of education events and music performances. We were excited to be asked to present a shared concert with our friends Gary and Martha Matthews!

Monday Musical Club handbell concert

About Gary and Martha Matthews

Gary and Martha also live in Holland, and they’re a talented couple! Gary studied organ, music education, and sacred music, and holds a doctorate in Worship Studies. He served as Pastor of Worship and the Arts at Highland Park Baptist Church in Southfield, MI, and at Christ Memorial Church in Holland, MI. He’s a published composer, and has been performing for more than forty years, with piano, organ, trumpet and voice.

Martha holds a Bachelors in Music Education and a Masters in Flute Performance. She has played principal flute with Florida Symphonic Pops, Florida Wind Symphony, Gold Coast Opera, Gold Coast Ballet and the Washington Idaho Symphony. Martha directs the Kalamazoo Ringers, and is a sought-after handbell clinician. In concert with Gary, she plays flute, whistles, bell tree, and piano.

A concert with handbells, flute, piano, trumpet, and more!

We held our shared concert at First Congregational Church of St. Joseph. This is a beautiful sanctuary for a music performance! It was a treat for the four of us to be able to perform together. We’d spent most of our summer at our cottage near Petoskey, and Gary and Martha had been in Holland. Planning a concert and rehearsing is a challenge when you’re in different towns! Thanks to the power of email, and our individual rehearsals, we made it work.

Our program included music on a variety of instruments, including handbells (of course!) Gary and Martha opened the concert with a piece for piano and trumpet, and we continued with a couple of our favorite handbell duets. We also enjoyed the opportunity to get together as a quartet to perform some pieces – including Larry’s infamous arrangement of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing that the four of us had previously played for one of the Kalamazoo Ringers’ online Christmas concerts. We all played Blessed Assurance together, with a brand-new flute part that Larry had written specially for this concert. It was fun to find that some of the audience hadn’t seen handbells played in our 4-in-hand style before. We talked to audience members afterwards, and answered questions about our technique and the way we move.

Here’s the full program!

We enjoyed listening to Gary and Martha’s pieces, particularly Brent Olstad’s I Love to Tell the Story. Martha’s flute-played was enthralling to hear, and the audience clearly loved this piece. We finished the concert with an extra surprise – Larry’s lively arrangement of Ding Dong, Merrily on High. This is another arrangement for handbells, piano and flute, and it makes a perfect ending for a concert.

Our thanks go to the Monday Musical Club for inviting us to share our music in concert, and to everyone who came to listen. We hope to have the opportunity to perform in concert with Gary and Martha again someday!

Monday Musical Club handbell duo

If you’d like to provide an opportunity for us to perform in concert with Gary and Martha again, or you’d like to host a handbell duet performance, please get in touch with us, and we’ll talk more!

Book a Handbell Performance for the 2022 Holiday Season!

It’s only September, and technically not even fall/autumn yet, but we’re already scheduling bookings and events for the 2022 holiday season. Christmas is always our busiest time of year. If you’d like to book a handbell performance for the Christmas season, now is the time!

book a handbell performance for Christmas

Why book a handbell performance for Christmas?

Everybody knows that bells and Christmas go together perfectly! Think of all the Christmas songs about bells; I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, Jingle Bells, Silver Bells, Christmas Bells are Ringing, Ding Dong, Merrily on High… and the list goes on. Handbell music can give a special festive atmosphere to any Christmas or holiday event. As a handbell duo, we can give a seasonal performance of carols and holiday music, or provide background music to add a special, welcoming touch to your holiday event.

If you’re organizing a corporate event, a community group holiday celebration, winter wedding, or Christmas gathering, you should consider adding handbell music! Our duet performances can bring the sounds of the season to hotel lobbies, department stores, shopping boutiques, community groups and private house parties alike. Handbells can be an unusual alternative to carol singers too!

As the 2022 holiday season approaches, we’re already looking forward to local Christmas performances in Holland, Zeeland and Grand Rapids. Look out for us again at the annual Kerstmarkt in Downtown Holland! We’ll be taking our Christmas handbell program to community groups, and performing with the Zeeland Community Band. Of course, we’ll also be involved in performances by the Kalamazoo Ringers. We’re excited that the group will be performing one of Larry’s recent handbell arrangements for full choir in their concert!

The advantages of a (very) small handbell choir

We often refer to ourselves as West Michigan’s Smallest Handbell Choir. There are only two of us, so when we give a performance, we won’t arrive at your venue with a trailer packed with tables, foam pads, and dozens of cases of handbells! We also won’t need a huge space for our performance. We take up far less room than a traditional handbell choir would – approximately the space of half a car-parking spot. It makes us ideal for venues where space is limited, such as small church sanctuaries, senior communities, community halls, hotel lobbies, and private homes. We bring our own table, music stand, bells and music with us. We’ll work with you to provide the kind of entertainment you need, whether it’s background music, an educational program, or a concert-style performance.

A note about COVID-19

Sadly, COVID-19 is still around, and we make every effort to keep our audiences safe and healthy. We’re fully vaccinated, and will take note of any COVID-19 protocols you’re observing for your event. We do our best to maintain social distancing wherever possible, especially around elderly or vulnerable people. Still, every “in-person” event carries some risk. If you’d like us to prepare an online performance video for you to play at your event instead, please ask.

Handbells Third Reformed Church

Would you like to book a handbell performance for Christmas?

A handbell performance could be exactly what your event needs for the 2022 Christmas and holiday season. Contact us to request our current performance fees, ask questions, or find out more. In order for us to give you the most accurate quote, please give us as much detail as possible. Let us know what kind of event you’re planning. Is it a worship service, a corporate party, a community event, or entertainment for a senior community? Let us know the date of the event, the location, and the type of performance you’re looking for.

We’re based in Holland, Michigan, but can travel (please enquire as early as possible, and allow for additional costs). We always recommend booking early (don’t wait until December!), but we can sometimes accommodate last-minute requests too. If in doubt, please ask.

We look forward to sharing our handbell music with you!

Christmas entertainment - handbells
Christmas – our favorite time of year!

Holiday Handbell Performances – a Busy December

December brought us a busy month of holiday handbell performances. After last year’s quiet holiday season, we launched back into live performances with a vengeance in the last few weeks of 2021.

Back to the Kerstmarkt-Holland

Our first seasonal performance was at this year’s Kerstmarkt in downtown Holland. This was our fifth time performing at this European-style Christmas market, and we always enjoy it. It was surprisingly cold this year, and we were thankful for the loan of a heater (thanks, Shady Side Farm!). Having said that, this event is always a highlight of our holiday season, whatever the weather. The market is a little slice of Europe here in West Michigan, and there are interesting things to buy, all made locally, and twinkling lights to add a festive atmosphere.

Handbell Ringers at Kerstmarkt Holland

Here’s a video of us at the Kerstmarkt!

Christmas Handbell Program for Seniors

We performed handbell duets at several senior communities this year. Our program of holiday handbell music generally lasts around 40-45 minutes. We played a selection of Christmas carols, some familiar and some less well-known, and on several occasions we had time for a question-and-answer session with the audience. It’s always fun to talk about the history of our instruments and the techniques used in playing them. We also get asked a lot of questions about how we met, and how we ended up in Michigan!

Handbells GT Connections Jenison

The other thing we enjoy doing, time permitting, is demonstrating an 8-bell piece on handchimes. They have a very pure tone, and lend themselves well to Christmas carols. Our favourite demonstration piece this year was In the Bleak Midwinter, which worked well on chimes, and proved to be popular with our audiences.

Holiday handbell performances, Michigan

We were also able to demonstrate our set of antique Taylor bells from England, at the Ringing in the Holidays event at Hudsonville Library. Playing these bells is more challenging for us, because the leather handles are more floppy than the handles on the bells we usually use, so we tend to use them to demonstrate some of our slower Christmas pieces – like Away in a Manger (Cradle Song), or the Dutch carol Hoe Leit dit Kindeke. It’s interesting to be able to show before-and-after photos of these handbells, which we bought from eBay and sent over to Ireland for restoration. Here’s how they look now:

Holiday handbell performances in (not so) far-off places

This year, we drove to Kalamazoo for a couple of our holiday bookings. We were thankful that the weather stayed mild all through December, so driving around wasn’t a problem at all. We enjoyed playing at a corporate holiday party, where we played an hour of “background music”, then gave a 30-minute duet performance. As it was a party, we handed out some handchimes to willing volunteers, and they had a go at playing Jingle Bells. Oh, what fun!

We went back to Burcham Hills, in East Lansing, where we’d played Christmas music outdoors at their socially-distant Festival of Lights last year. This year we were happy to be indoors, and we gave a two-hour performance during their Ho-Ho-Holiday Open House event.

Holiday handbell performances - Burcham Hills
Holiday handbell performances - senior community

Performing with the Zeeland Community Band

We were delighted to be able to perform in concert with our friends at the Zeeland Community Band again. After a two-year break, it was exciting to see how much this talented ensemble has grown, both in number and in skill. It was a wonderful concert, with a wide variety of Christmas and holiday tunes, and an appreciative audience. It’s been noticeable to us how people have rejoiced at having the opportunity to hear (and see) live music performances again.

Zeeland Community Band Christmas concert 2021

Christmas Eve worship services

We concluded our busy month of holiday handbell performances with four Christmas Eve services. We played in the three services at Ridge Point Community Church, where we’d last played in December 2017. It was good to be back! We played a pre-service handbell prelude, and joined their talented band for Lincoln Brewster’s Miraculum in each of the services. Didn’t our handbells look pretty under those lights?

Handbells Ridge Point Community Church

We finished our Christmas performance season with the 11:00pm service at Third Reformed Church, here in Holland. We played a 15-minute prelude, and added handbell parts to several of the hymns and the Silent Night organ postlude. After our busy day, and a hectic month of holiday handbell performances, the late service was exactly what we needed. As Christmas Eve turned into Christmas Day, we went home for some sleep!

Handbells Third Reformed Church

Thank you so much for a wonderful 2021 holiday season. If you booked us for a handbell duet performance, we’re grateful to you. If you came to one of our public events and stopped to listen, or if you offered encouragement or kind comments about our music, please be assured that your words meant a lot to us. To everyone who bought handbell music from Choraegus, or ordered a copy of The Bass Ringer’s Notebook – thank you. And if you connected with us on our Facebook page or YouTube channel, or shared our music videos on social media, we’re grateful to you too. We look forward to sharing lots more handbell music with you in 2022!

The Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas Concert is on YouTube!

You can now watch the Kalamazoo Ringers’ Christmas concert On a Winter’s Night on YouTube! If you missed the live-stream on Facebook, you can now catch up at your leisure. The whole concert is available to watch on the Kalamazoo Ringers’ official YouTube channel:

There are also individual videos of each of the concert performances, so you can catch up with your favorites, and share the videos with your friends and on social media.

We were honored that the concert contained several Choraegus handbell arrangements:


O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

We enjoyed playing this 16-bell piece with Rhonda and Martha – in our house in Holland, Michigan! The beauty of a small-ensemble concert is being able to rehearse and record in smaller venues, and it’s fun to invite the audience into our homes for a short while.

Of the Father’s Love Begotten

This is a very recent arrangement – so new that we haven’t even published it yet. It’s an interesting twist on the Divinum Mysterium plainchant melody, familiar to many handbell ringers because of Fred Gramann’s famous arrangement. This is a quirky and fun arrangement, with the addition of a cajón part. We decided that a Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas concert was a good reason/excuse to put a recording together. If all goes to plan, the sheet music will be available to purchase from Choraegus in May 2022.

Wexford Carol

Wexford Carol is another of our 16-bell arrangements. It’s a traditional Irish carol that’s full of dissonance and rich chords. This arrangement has been popular with Choraegus customers this year! Rhonda and Martha joined us for this performance.

‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime

This 8-bell arrangement of the Huron Carol lends itself well to bass handbells! We met with Rhonda and John to rehearse and perform Matthew Prins’s arrangement of Fum, Fum, Fum. At the last minute, we decided it could be fun to drop this one a couple of octaves and see how it would sound. We think it worked well!

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

We’ve been playing this 8-bell arrangement for several years now, and always enjoy it. It brings back happy memories of a fun Christmas performance in California in 2014! We were thankful for the opportunity to record it again fo this year’s Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas concert.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

This is another recent arrangement from Choraegus. It’s pure fun to play! It has mixed meters, a lively feel, and a challenging flute addition. Our talented Holland-neighbors Martha and Gary Matthews joined us for this performance. We’ll be publishing this one in spring or summer 2022, along with a 5-octave version!

We hope that the Kalamazoo Ringers will be able to get back to in-person rehearsals and concerts in 2022. In some ways, the group’s time apart has been good for us; we’ve all been able to develop our skills in small-ensemble ringing. Having said that, we’re all very much looking forward to being able to make music together again!

If you have questions about any of the Choraegus music from the Kalamazoo Ringers’ Christmas concert, please get in touch with us, and we’ll be happy to help! We encourage you to share the Christmas concert videos with your friends, and we hope to see many of you at one of the Kalamazoo Ringers’ concerts in 2022!

Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas concert program 2021

The 2021 Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas Concert

The 2021 Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas Concert is tomorrow!

Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas Concert

We’re excited about this concert! On a Winter’s Night will be streamed on the Kalamazoo Ringers’ Facebook page at 4pm EST. We were all disappointed not to be able to rehearse and prepare our usual Christmas concert at Grace Harbor. Instead, we cautiously decided to gather only in small groups for this Christmas season – and it turned out to be a lot of fun! The concert is an interesting mixture of handbell solos, duets and small ensembles – with a lot of Choraegus music!

Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas

We’re particularly excited to share our 5-octave arrangement of Of the Father’s Love Begotten. This is a new piece that we haven’t published yet. It will be available to download from Choraegus in May next year. There’s also an exciting arrangement of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, where we’re joined by Martha and Gary Matthews on flute and piano. There’s a nice mixture of small ensemble pieces, from Jason Krug’s beautiful Coventry, played on bell tree, to the pure fun of Valerie Stephenson’s Caroler’s Hoedown… and if you stay tuned until the end, we’ll even show you some outtakes!

The Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas Concert will be live on the Kalamazoo Ringers Facebook page at 4:00pm on Sunday, December 19. The video will be available to watch on Facebook and YouTube afterwards.

We have high hopes of presenting an in-person concert next spring!

Need a Handbell Performance for Christmas? Book Soon!

If you need a handbell performance for Christmas 2021, it might be a good idea to book soon! After last year’s very quiet holiday season, it’s encouraging to see Christmas events and worship services being planned. Our calendar is filling up fast!

Our holiday performance season will start on November 26, at the Kerstmarkt in Downtown Holland. We always look forward to this festive outdoor event, where we’ll be braving the chilly weather to play Christmas carols outdoors. It’s a great way to start the holiday season, and a wonderful place to shop for locally-made gifts, crafts and food.

Handbell performance for Christmas - Kerstmarkt

Handbells are perfect for the holidays!

We’ll be back at the Kerstmarkt on December 10th. This year we’re also looking forward to performing with the Zeeland Community Band at their Christmas concert, as well as giving another handbell duet program at Hudsonville Library, and some private events throughout December. We’ll share more details about our public performances soon.

Handbell music can bring a magical and festive atmosphere to any Christmas or holiday event. We can give a seasonal performance of carols and holiday music. We can provide background music to add that special welcoming touch to your corporate event, community group celebration, winter wedding, or holiday gathering. Nothing says Christmas quite as well as the traditional sound of English handbells. Our duet performances can bring the sounds of the season to community events, hotel lobbies, department stores, airports, shopping boutiques, social groups and private house parties alike.

Thinking of booking a handbell performance for Christmas?

As a handbell duo, we take up far less room than a traditional bell choir would. That makes us ideal for venues where space is limited, or where social distancing is still being observed. We still have a few dates available for 2021 (including some Sundays during Advent), so if you need handbells for your Christmas event or worship service, you’re welcome to get in touch with us. If we can fit your event into our schedule, we will.

Contact us with some details about your event, and we’ll check our availability and provide a quote for you. Handbells are the perfect way to celebrate the holiday season!

Handbell performance for Christmas - Larry and Carla

A Christmas Handbell Duet – Away in a Manger

Here’s a Christmas handbell duet that could be perfect for anyone looking for something unusual this holiday season. The melody is a traditional Normandy carol tune that was first published with the Away in a Manger lyrics in 1911. It’s a change from the Murray or Kirkpatrick tunes usually heard with this carol, and we played it for the Kalamazoo Ringers’ online Home for Christmas concert last year!

More information about Away in a Manger

This arrangement is for bells from D5 to A6, with piano accompaniment. It’s not difficult to play, and there’s no requirement for traveling 4-in-hand or any advanced solo-ringing techniques. A piano accompaniment mp3 is available to download separately if you don’t have an accompanist, or if you’d like to practise on your own. The sheet music for this Christmas handbell duet is available to download from Choraegus.

Buying Choraegus handbell music

When you purchase Away in a Manger from the Choraegus site, the music score will come to you as a PDF file. That means you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. When you’ve downloaded your music, your one-time payment entitles you to print sufficient copies for your group. If you prefer to split the parts between more than two people, that’s okay; you don’t need to pay for extra copies, as long as you’re only using the music for one ensemble.

Please read our licensing agreement for full information about this. If you’re new to buying music from Choraegus, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this to take you through the process in a (we hope) stress-free way!

Purchasing this arrangement gives you no-fuss permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and online video-sharing. Please take some time to read about what you’re allowed to do with Choraegus handbell music. In these times of live-streaming and online concerts, it’s particularly important that we all understand and follow the laws concerning performance licensing and copyright.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about buying or playing Choraegus handbell music, please look at our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the information you’re looking for, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

Christmas handbell duet Away in a Manger

Dance of the Sugar Plum Sumo Fairy – for Bass Handbell Trio

The Dance of the Sugar Plum Sumo Fairy takes Tchaikovsky’s ballet music to a whole new low! If you’re into bass handbell ringing, this arrangement could be an entertaining addition to your holiday repertoire. We had fun performing it for the Kalamazoo Ringers’ online Home for Christmas concert last year!

More information about Dance of the Sugar Plum Sumo Fairy

This arrangement is for bells from C#2 to G5. If you’d like to play it, the sheet music is available to download from Choraegus.

Buying Choraegus handbell music

When you purchase Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from the Choraegus site, the music score will come to you as a PDF file. That means you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. When you’ve downloaded your music, your one-time payment entitles you to print sufficient copies for your group. For your convenience, the score package for this arrangement comes with a complete three-staff score, plus separate parts for each ringer. If you need more than three people to play it, that’s okay; you don’t need to pay for extra copies.

Please read our licensing agreement for full information about this. If you’re new to buying music from Choraegus, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this to take you through the process in a (we hope) stress-free way!

Purchasing this arrangement gives you no-fuss permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and online video-sharing. Please take some time to read about what you’re allowed to do with Choraegus handbell music. In these times of live-streaming and online concerts, it’s particularly important that we all understand and follow the laws concerning performance licensing and copyright.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about buying or playing Choraegus handbell music, please look at our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the information you’re looking for, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

Sugar Plum Sumo Fairy