White Christmas, for Handbells and Flute

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!

  • Ukrainian Bell Carol: A fun Level 4 arrangement for 5-7 octaves that makes a great concert-closer!
  • Winter Wonderland: A sparkling Level 5 arrangement, for 5-7 octaves of handbells and 3 octaves of handchimes

Any questions? Ideas and suggestions?

If you have any suggestions for more holiday tunes you’d like to see arranged for handbells, you’re always welcome to contact us and let us know!

White Christmas, for handbells, arranged by Larry Sue

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas – handbells

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!

Other music available on Sheet Music Plus/Sheet Music Direct

We have more arrangements available from Sheet Music Plus, and we hope you’ll enjoy browsing there!

Winter Wonderland – a 5-octave, Level 5 arrangement.

Silver Bells – a 3-7 octave, Level 4 arrangement of this holiday classic.

I Wonder as I Wander – an 8-bell arrangement of this beautiful Christmas song.

Carol of the Drum – often known as The Little Drummer Boy, this is one of our most popular 8-bell Christmas arrangements.

Bring Me Sunshine – This is a fun Level 3 arrangement for 3 octaves, of a song that was used as the theme for the UK series Morecambe & Wise.

Cavatina – This beautiful classical guitar piece was written by Stanley Myers. Larry’s arrangement is for 3 or 5 octaves of handbells.

Any questions?

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!

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas - handbell arrangement by Larry Sue, Choraegus