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Explore our unique Christmas Show featuring music for brass and accompaniment combined with favourite Yuletide prose and poetry.

The Performance | Technical Requirements | Watch and Listen | What They Said

Showing compassion to a group of travelling musicians by allowing them to your shelter in your “home” begins a delightful evening of warmth, friendship and good cheer. Through spectacular arrangements, favourite Holiday poetry and prose and a sprinkling of playful antics, Brass Rings celebrates six traditional elements of Christmas – Bells, Snow, Food, Gifts, Trees and Angels. The show is an inviting, involving experience that makes you glad that, once again, it’s Time For Christmas!

  • The Bells – Edgar Allen Poe
  • Sleigh Bells At Night – Elizabeth Coatsworth
  • Conversation About Christmas – Dylan Thomas
  • The More It Snows – A A Milne
  • Winter Morning – Ogden Nash
  • Stopping By A Woods On A Snowy Evening – Robert Frost
  • About Plum Pudding – Sandra Boyton
  • What’s A-Wassailing? – Sandra Boyton
  • Come Ride With Me To Toyland – Roweena Bennett
  • Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus – Francis Church
  • The Joy Of Giving – John Greenleaf Whittier
  • little tree – e e cummings
  • The Work Of Christmas – Howard Thurman
  • Carol of the Bells
  • Ding Dong! Merrily On High
  • Silver Bells
  • Sleigh Ride
  • Frosty The Snowman
  • White Christmas
  • Winter Wonderland
  • Let It Snow!
  • Silent Night
  • O Holy Night
  • Here We Come A-Wassailing
  • Parade of the Wooden Soldiers
  • I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
  • The Little Drummer Boy
  • Angels We Have Heard On High
  • Hallelujah
  • Carol Sing-along

75 minutes of music are interspersed with 20 minutes of spoken word in an engagingly theatrical manner. These combine with a 20-minute interval to give a 1 hour, 55 minute performance.

Brass quintet and Organ/Piano/Keyboard


Time For Christmas has proven to be extremely adaptable, having been performed successfully in gymnasia, churches, concert halls – even a shopping mall! Inability to provide some of the following would not necessarily preclude a performance.

We want the patrons’ experience of Time For Christmas to begin before they reach the venue and certainly before they enter the performance space. To achieve this, the presenter should:

  • if the venue has a bell, sound it for 30 minutes before the performance
  • make mulled cider (in open kettles to maximize fragrance) and cookies freely available to patrons before the performance and at the Interval.

The presenter will supply or ensure that:

  • the performance surface (stage) is clean and clear, measuring at least 9 meters (30 feet) wide x 6 meters (20 feet) deep
  • two (2) persons insured by the Presenter will assist with load-in/set-up and pack-up/load-out.
  • the performance space is exclusively available to Brass Rings Productions (BRP) and technical crew for set-up/rehearsal from four (4) hours prior to a performance. The space will be at concert temperature (21°C or 70°F) at this time.
  • six (6) sturdy chairs with a flat seat and no arms (orchestra chairs).
  • two (2) safe and sturdy sets of steps from audience level to stage level.
  • an adequate number of copies of the sing-along carols, printed from a digital file provided by Brass Rings Productions

The presenter will supply or ensure that:

  • a good quality sound system to amplify an electronic keyboard and spoken word, and competent personnel to operate it during set-up and performance.
  • a good piano in excellent tune (A440) on the stage (optional).
  • in performance facilities equipped with special or stage lighting, competent personnel to focus the lighting instruments and to operate the lighting systems during the set-up, rehearsal and performance.

The presenter will supply or ensure that:

  • two (2) dressing rooms for BRP’s exclusive use for a period of time commencing two (2) hours prior to a matinee performance, three (3) hours prior to an evening performance and ending one-half (0.5) hour after the completion of BRP’s activities at the facility. The dressing rooms shall be clean, private and secure for belongings of BRP personnel. They shall be located conveniently to non-public restrooms.

Sample our debut recording TIME FOR CHRISTMAS
Featuring 20 arrangements from our live show, masterfully performed and recorded. With William O’Meara, organ.

Track 8 – Good King Wenceslas

Track 3 – Ding, Dong!

Track 11 – Winter Wonderland

Track 17 – The Little Drummer Boy


“Brass Rings has devised their own brand of schtick, using spoken word, humour, props and an all-round light-hearted good feeling. Add to that their exceptional playing, and you have an entertainment package which never flags.

Each member of the group is a very capable solo player, and the lead passed back and forth, from the highest note on the piccolo trumpet to the lowest on the tuba. The blend between Pattison’s French Horn and Henderson’s trombone was so good that you had to look to see which one was playing the melody lead.”

The Kitchener-Waterloo Record

“Brass Rings warmed a winter night in London with an evening full of great music, good humour and the best of the season. Their performance of Time For Christmas introduced a London audience which came away completely impressed…

There were at least nine Christmas or festive-themed concerts in London that night, but there was no doubt where the best one was to be found … celebrating Time For Christmas with Brass Rings… “

James Reany, Columnist and Reporter
The London Free Press

“Our organizers have been stopped on the street all week long with positive comments from our subscribers. … the show ‘got them into the Christmas spirit’ – ‘were overwhelmed by your talented group’ – ‘never enjoyed a performance more than this one’ – ‘the best show ever!’ – … I guess the reality is that Brass Rings made the organizers of the AES heroes in our community. Thank you so very much for your superb performance. … We know that we’ll be hearing more and more about Brass Rings.”

Atikokan Entertainment Series

“You took State College by storm.”

Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts

“Thank you for the excellent CD of your Christmas music. Bravo to your ‘Brass Rings’! “

Fred Mills
Former member, Canadian Brass