At our annual December concert on Sunday, the weather outside was “frightful” but inside City Hall we were cozy and warm, swingin’ into Christmas with the help of the Little Dickens Choir of Holyrood School, a fabulous jazz combo led by pianist Charlie Austin and the Studio ‘B’ saxophone quartet.

Special guest host Olive the other reindeer hoofed it in from the North Pole to tell us the story of how she had mentored Rudolf.

As paper snowflakes danced above our heads, we started off with “Let it Snow” and finished our program with a heart lifting “Joy to the World.” In between, the hall heated up with some fancy footwork from Little Dickens, sweet saxophone sounds from Studio B and a variety of Christmas tunes, including traditional, swing, jazz and gospel.

At the end of our concert the audience joined us in singing our traditional wassail song and warmed up some more with a cup of spicy apple juice wassail. Truly a treat for all the senses!

The Edmonton Food Bank and CBC turkey drive also benefited from generous donations.

contributed by Carol Dearden