Christmas 2026 · Los Angeles
Carols and Christmas concerts in Los Angeles, 2026
Christmas music in Los Angeles centres on Grand Avenue, where Walt Disney Concert Hall and its great pipe organ host a month of carols, sing-alongs and Baroque masterpieces, and on the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels a few steps away. Here is what we could confirm on the choirs’ and venues’ own pages on 12 November 2026.
Updated October 2026
The Los Angeles Master Chorale
The city’s professional choir, resident at Walt Disney Concert Hall, opens its Christmas on Saturday 5 December. Carols for Kids, at 11am, is a one-hour concert of well-known carols and sing-alongs with Youth Chorus LA, conducted by Grant Gershon, with photos with Santa before it; youth seats for ages 2 to 18 are half the adult price.
At 2pm the same day, Candy Canes, Carols and Cheer brings 62 singers, Lisa Edwards at the piano and John West at the organ for carols and holiday music from around the world, with numbers to sing along to.
On Sunday 20 December at 7pm comes the season’s favourite, the Great Messiah Sing-Along: Grant Gershon leads Master Chorale singers, soloists and a chamber orchestra while the audience sings the choruses. No experience is needed; come with a choir, with friends or alone, and buy a score in the lobby.
Our advice: for the Sing-Along, sit with your voice part if you can, and practise the “Hallelujah” chorus before you go.
Master Chorale: Carols for Kids Master Chorale: Candy Canes, Carols and Cheer Master Chorale: The Great Messiah Sing-Along
Las Posadas at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
On Sunday 13 December at 7pm the Master Chorale, 40 singers with piano under Grant Gershon, joins Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels for A Journey of Joy: The Music of Las Posadas. Las Posadas is the Mexican Christmas tradition of hospitality and togetherness, and the concert weaves mariachi through familiar seasonal songs.
The cathedral’s 2026 Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Mass times had not been published when we checked, nor had the Advent and Christmas services at St John’s Cathedral, the Episcopal cathedral. Both post them on their own sites in December. Our advice: check them in the week before Christmas, and arrive early for any Christmas Eve service.
Master Chorale: The Music of Las Posadas St John’s Cathedral: worship schedule
Messiah and a Baroque Christmas with Emmanuelle Haïm
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsThe French conductor Emmanuelle Haïm brings her ensemble, Le Concert d’Astrée, to Walt Disney Concert Hall for Christmas. Handel’s Messiah is sung on Monday 14 December at 7pm, presented by the Master Chorale with a pre-concert talk at 6pm, and again on Tuesday 15 December at 7pm for the LA Phil, with Amanda Forsythe, Carlo Vistoli, Lunga Eric Hallam and Ashley Riches as soloists; LA Phil tickets are from $67.
From Friday 18 to Sunday 20 December, Haïm conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Le Concert d’Astrée Choir in Celebrating Christmas: Corelli’s Christmas Concerto, Vivaldi’s Gloria and his motet In furore iustissimae irae with the countertenor Carlo Vistoli, and Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Trumpets. Tickets are from $67, and there is a Winter Wonderland in BP Hall before each concert.
Master Chorale: Messiah, 14 December LA Phil: Messiah, 15 December LA Phil: Celebrating Christmas
Deck the Hall: Chanticleer and the Holiday Sing-Along
The LA Phil’s Deck the Hall series fills the rest of December. On Wednesday 16 December at 8pm, the vocal ensemble Chanticleer sings a cappella Christmas music from across the centuries, from a candlelit procession of chant to a gospel finale (from $44).
On Saturday 19 December the Holiday Sing-Along, at 11.30am and 2.30pm, gathers hundreds of voices with a jazz combo, the choir voices/LA and the hall’s pipe organ, hosted by Melissa Peterman and conducted by John Sutton (from $39; children from age 2).
Our advice: the Chanticleer concert, with its candlelit opening, is the closest thing in Los Angeles to a cathedral carol service; book seats facing the stage.
LA Phil: Chanticleer LA Phil: Holiday Sing-Along Christmas in Los Angeles
How to plan your Christmas music
Christmas Day 2026 is a Friday, so the concerts cluster on the weekends of 5 and 6, 12 and 13, and 19 and 20 December. Most of the programme is at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Grand Avenue, and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is a few minutes’ walk away, so one evening downtown can take in both.
Our advice: book the paid concerts now, as the sing-alongs sell out; and check each cathedral’s own page in mid-December for its Christmas Eve and Christmas Day times.
Questions and answers
When is the Great Messiah Sing-Along in Los Angeles in 2026?
Sunday 20 December 2026 at 7pm at Walt Disney Concert Hall, led by Grant Gershon with Los Angeles Master Chorale singers, soloists and a chamber orchestra. The audience sings the choruses; scores are sold in the lobby.
Where can I hear Christmas carols in Los Angeles in 2026?
At Walt Disney Concert Hall: the Master Chorale’s Carols for Kids and Candy Canes, Carols and Cheer on Saturday 5 December, Chanticleer on 16 December and the LA Phil’s Holiday Sing-Along on 19 December. At the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, the Master Chorale and Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles sing Las Posadas carols on Sunday 13 December at 7pm.
What time is midnight Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in 2026?
The cathedral had not published its 2026 Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Mass times when we checked on 12 November 2026. They appear on the cathedral’s and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ own pages in December.
Dates and times from each choir’s or venue’s own page (lamasterchorale.org, laphil.com, stjohnsla.org), checked 12 November 2026. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels’ own site could not be read and its 2026 Christmas Masses were not yet published. Check before you go.