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The most memorable Christmases I've ever spent were when I did something I never did as a kid: I ran away from home. If you're like me—a lover of choral music and single person who doesn't have a big, rowdy family with whom to celebrate the holidays—I highly recommend it. The Christmas holiday can be a killer if you're alone. But I've always found solace in music—it never fails to lift my spirits.
My own approach is simple but requires a passport: I head to London near Christmas and seek out as many choral music holiday services and concerts as possible. It may sound a bit drastic—going alone all that way for only several days—but this strategy is guaranteed to chase away the blues.
To plan my getaway I first head to the websites of my favorite venues: St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church, St. Paul's Cathedral, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, St. John's Square, St. James's Church Piccadilly, and Barbican Hall. There are several other helpful websites specific to London tourism, such as visitlondon.com, londontown.com, and choirs.org.uk which has links to over 200 choirs in London alone.
In the lead-up to Christmas, London is so alive with choral music you can barely cram it all in. I have been known to go to six performances in three days, including the 4 p.m. service of Nine Lessons and Carols at Westminster Abbey followed by the 11:30 p.m. service at St. Paul's Cathedral, both on Christmas Eve.
And then there's the concert at the 6,000-seat Royal Albert Hall, featuring a choral ensemble and chamber orchestra performing Handel by candlelight and an audience sing-along of traditional carols. The program is so popular it regularly sells out several consecutive evenings.
This choral music therapy, of course, can be replicated in other cities. New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, to name a few, are good bets for plenty of holiday services with excellent choirs during this time of year. I know one couple who makes an annual music pilgrimage to the Cathedral Choral Society's Joy of Christmas concert at the National Cathedral. Another friend travels every year to Minnesota to hear the St. Olaf College Choirs' annual Christmas Festival.
Yes, I'm alone on my choral Christmas excursion, but when surrounded by the majesty of those magnificent venues and that glorious music, I feel connected with something far more powerful than myself.
