On Christmas Eve, please join Rev. Anne Mason at the 5 PM family service, where she will share a retelling of the Christmas story by Simon Andrews called, “Our Story: A Backwards Christmas.” Rev. Anne will be joined by the children and youth of the congregation as sheep, shepherds, wise people, other animals, angels, and Mary and Joseph. The children’s choir will sing Vince Guaraldi’s tender “Christmas Time is Here” (from A Charlie Brown Christmas) and Felix Mendelssohn’s beloved Christmas carol “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” with soloist McKenna O’Hare Gibson. Schuyler Hess, Jordan O’Hare Gibson, Gabriela Padilla, Peter Svensen and Liz Whitman-Kinghorn will sing the energetic Calypso carol “Mary’s Boychild.” Andreas Padilla will sing the serene boy soprano solo “Once in Royal David’s City.” Jordan O’Hare Gibson, on bass clarinet, will play Vince Guaraldi’s jazz arrangement of “O Tannenbaum” (from A Charlie Brown Christmas) for the centering music. And for the postlude, Rip Jackson will play a rousing jazz piano arrangement of “Go Tell it on the Mountain.” We will have guest instrumentalists Regie O’Hare Gibson (percussion), Aidan Dwyer (contrabass), Mark and Mitch Therieau (guitars) and Jamie Willis (percussion). The congregation will be singing beloved Christmas carols during the service.

For the 7 PM Christmas Eve candlelight service, the sanctuary choir, soloists and instrumentalists will adorn the worship service with beautiful Christmas music. Rev. Anne and members of the congregation will share readings from the Gospels, the Koran, Maya Angelou, Wihla Hutson, and Sophia Lyons Fahs. The sanctuary choir (with harp, clarinet, flute, French horn and piano) will sing two of John Rutter’s beautiful Christmas Carols – “Christmas Lullaby,” with soloists Elisabeth Jas and Dave Meharry and “Candlelight Carol,” with soloist Toni Tasker. Julia Jaffe and Elizabeth Walsh (with all of the instrumentalists) will sing a beautiful duet version of Adolphe Adam’s “O Holy Night.” Guest tenor soloist Jamie Willis will sing Pietro A. Yon’s lovely “Gesu Bambino.” For the centering music, Ryan Lee (clarinet) Martha Moor (harp), Meg Newhouse (flute), Erik Svensen (horn) and Rip Jackson (piano) will play Ralph Vaughan Williams’s gorgeous “Fantasia on ‘Greensleeves.’” The congregation will be singing beloved Christmas carols during the service, and Rev. Anne will lead the congregation out of the sanctuary to rekindle the candles and sing carols on the steps of the church.

We hope you and your family will join First Parish for these special services.
Rev. Anne Mason, Worship Leader