Christmas services

All of our Advent and Christmas services are free to attend, however, due to the popularity of some of them, such as the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, you will need to book a ticket.  

Further details will be published here in due course and in our newsletter, ‘The SPIRE’, to which you can subscribe here.

  • Thursday 21 December, 6pm – Nine Lessons and Carols, sung by Frideswide Voices*
     
  • Friday 22 December, 6pm – Nine Lessons and Carols, sung by Frideswide Voices*
     
  • Saturday 23 December, 10.30am – Journey to Bethlehem
     
  • Saturday 23 December, 6pm – Nine Lessons and Carols, sung by the Cathedral Choir*
     
  • Sunday 24 December, 3pm – Nine Lessons and Carols, sung by the Cathedral Choir*
     
  • Sunday 24 December, 11.30pm – Midnight Eucharist, sung by the Cathedral Consort
     
  • Monday 25 December, 11am – Christmas Day Choral Eucharist, sung by the Cathedral Choir

* Booking Essential

Christmas trees framing the view down the knave
Ticketed Event

Christmas with the Clerks

Join the Clerks of the Cathedral Choir on Saturday 2nd December at 8pm for a festive feast of carols, Christmas classics, mash-ups, and more.

Tickets available here

Oxmas Charity Concert

Wednesday 29 November, 8.15pm

The College Choir’s annual candlelight Oxmas Concert for Charity. All are welcome for this free festive concert. A retiring collection will be taken in support of the charity, Sing Inside, which works to bring the restorative power of choral music into prisons.

Schola Cantorum Christmas Concert – Ticketed Event

Thursday 30 November, 8pm

Schola Cantorum of Oxford is one of the longest established and most widely known chamber choirs in the UK. The choir comprises around thirty singers, most of whom are students at Oxford University. Studying a broad variety of subjects across the Humanities and Sciences, the choir’s members rehearse during term, and regularly perform in Oxford and elsewhere.

Tickets available here

Choir and congregation singing by candlelight

Advent Carol Service – Sunday 3 December, 6pm

For centuries, Christians have observed a season of preparation for Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ: looking honestly at the pain of the world and recognising that it is marred by violence and greed, but hearing the promise of the Bible that salvation will come to those who ‘dwell in the shadow of death.’ In words from Scripture, in music, and in well-known Advent hymns, we hear the promises of God that one day all will be made new.

Sung by the Cathedral Choir, including music from Handel to Howells, Weir to Warlock.

Advent Carol Service – Wednesday 6 December, 6pm

Sung by Frideswide Voices with the Clerks.

This Advent carol service looks at the promises of God and the preparation for Christmas by thinking about Mary, mother of Jesus. Using poetry as well as the Bible, choir carols and Advent hymns, we begin to look ahead to the birth of Jesus and to give thanks to God for the gift of new beginnings which Advent and Christmas offer us.

Follow the Stars – Macmillan Carol Concert – Ticketed Event

Friday 8 December, 8pm    

Follow the Stars – Macmillan Carols is a magnificent annual Christmas fundraiser, taking place in the splendour of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford on Friday 8 December 2023 at 8pm. An evening not to be missed!

Highlights will include favourite carols and spine-tingling solos brought to you from the world class voices of the Oxford Bach Soloists. Intermingled with the exceptional music our celebrities will bring you festive cheer with their performances of Christmas readings; funny, poignant, a little unusual and even surprising but all uplifting. We recommend early booking for this popular concert.

Tickets available here

Ticketed Event

Music at Oxford—Family concert

2.30pm on Saturday 9 December 2023
The Boys of Christ Church Cathedral Choir
Director: Steven Grahl

Come and join us for a family-friendly, relaxed, fun and informal daytime celebration of the festive season. Those of all ages will enjoy the thunderous sound of the organ and be inspired by the beautiful angelic voices of the choristers. The programme will be interspersed with audience carols so make sure you come ready to sing and thoroughly immerse yourself in this seasonal treat for all the family.

Tickets available here
Christmas tree in the Cathedral cloister

Basilinda Consort: Carols at the Convent – Ticketed Event

Oxford’s premier upper voice ensemble returns to Christ Church on Saturday 9th December at 8pm to reveal newly-discovered music for Advent and Christmas from Baroque English convents in Europe. From the flashiest French masterpieces and virtuosic English motets to gentle Dutch lullabies – alongside some familiar favourites – enter a wonderful musical world and join us for a musical journey through early modern England, France, and the Low Countries at Christmas, all within the former priory of the Cathedral.

Tickets available here.

Ticketed Event

Music at Oxford—Christmas Concerts

8pm on Wednesday 13 December 2023
8pm on Friday 15 December 2023

Music at Oxford’s famous annual celebration of Christmas music and carols dates back, as far as we can tell, to Christmas 1985. Since then, the world-class choir has enchanted audiences with their renditions of seasonal music in the wonderful surroundings of Christ Church Cathedral. As always, this event combines a popular mix of festive cheer and seasonal nostalgia, with readings from the creators of theatre company Box Tale Soup, Antonia Christophers and Noel Byrne, and the chance for us all to join in with the audience carols under the expert direction of Steven Grahl.

Book tickets for Wednesday 13 December 8pm

Book tickets for Friday 15 December 8pm

Christmas tree in the Cathedral Cloister

And On Earth Peace: A Christmas Concert

The Cathedral Singers sing a selection of Christmas music including Leighton - A hymn of the Nativity, Finzi - In terra pax, and Rutti - Three carols. Also works by Byrd, Briggs and Rutter. Well known carols are included for the audience to join in and drinks will be served to audience members during the interval.

Tickets available here

Thames Valley Police Carols

Thursday 14 December, 8pm.

Thames Valley Police join us for a Christmas concert with carols, sung by the Cathedral Choir and Thames Valley Police’s own choir.

London Concertante – A Viennese Christmas Spectacular – Ticketed Event

Sunday 17 December, 8pm

Always a winning concert, with a combination of pieces that our audience loves, this concert celebrates the magic of Christmas and brings people together for a sensational evening of wonderful music.

Tchaikovsky’s elegant Nutcracker Suite leads on from Brahms’ serious Hungarian Dance No. 5, before Strauss II introduces us to the boundless exuberance of the Polish March in his Trisch-Trasch Polka. In the concert’s penultimate work Tchaikovsky transports the evening to the magical halls of snowy Tsarist Russia with a regal waltz from his ballet Sleeping Beauty. The evening reaches its climax with the famous Blue Danube Waltz, not only proving the crowning jewel of a fabulous night’s worth of music, but the coronation of Johann Strauss II as the master of the Viennese waltz.

Tickets available here

Friends’ Carol Service

Tuesday 19 December, 6pm

A Carol Service with the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, directed by Steven Grahl.

Journey To Bethlehem

Saturday 23 December, 10:30am.

This short storytelling service transports us to Bethlehem, entering imaginatively into the Nativity story. Aimed at families with children under 11 (but all are welcome.) Children (and adults!) are welcome to dress up as characters in the Nativity story or to bring a favourite cuddly toy to place in the stable.

Christmas decorations in the Cathedral
Ticketed Event

Nine Lessons and Carols

Thursday 21 December and Friday 22 December, 6pm

Sung by Frideswide Voices with the Clerks.

This candlelit service with traditional readings and carols, with congregational singing and both traditional and modern choral music, is one of our most popular Christmas services.

Tickets for the Services of Nine Lessons and Carols will be released at 10am on Friday 8 December. If you are unable to book online, please call the Cathedral Office on 01865 286869.

Tickets available here from 10am Friday 8 December 2023
Ticketed Event

Nine Lessons and Carols

Saturday 23 December, 6pm and Sunday 24 December, 3pm

Sung by the Cathedral Choir.

This candlelit service with traditional readings and carols, with congregational singing and both traditional and modern choral music, is one of our most popular Christmas services.

Tickets for the Services of Nine Lessons and Carols will be released at 10am on Friday 8 December. If you are unable to book online, please call the Cathedral Office on 01865 286869.

Tickets available here from 10am Friday 8 December 2023
Candles in the Cathedral

Midnight Eucharist

Sunday 24 December, 11:30pm

In this special midnight service for Christmas, we celebrate together the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ: with the joyful music of the Choir; with readings, music and carols that celebrate Christ’s birth; with incense rising as a symbol of celebration and prayer; and with the bread of the Eucharist, blessed and broken. At the end of the service, we bless the Christmas crib and place in it the baby Jesus who has been absent throughout the season of Advent.

Christmas Day Choral Eucharist

Monday 25 December, 11am

In this special service on Christmas morning, sung by the Cathedral Choir, we give thanks for the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, with joyful readings, music and carols. The preacher is the Bishop of Oxford, the Right Revd Dr Steven Croft.

Epiphany Carol Service - Sunday 7 January, 6pm

Sung by the Cathedral Singers.

The Christmas season extends into January as we continue to celebrate the birth of Jesus, and some favourite Christmas carols – such as ‘We three kings’ – really belong to this season. In this carol service, we will sing some of those favourites and the Cathedral Singers will offer musical reflection on the stories of ‘Epiphany’: revelation of the glory of God in Jesus.

Sung by the Cathedral Choir

Epiphany Carol Service

Sunday 20 January, 6pm

Sung by the Cathedral Choir and members of local church choirs.

We celebrate Epiphany with music sung by the choirs and carols, with poetry and words from the Bible.

Choirboys processing through the Cathedral cloister