Chicago
Early Music
Consort

All you to feasting and mirth are inclin’d, Come,here is good news for to pleasure your mind, Old Christmas is come for to keep open house, He scorns to be guilty of starving a mouse!

Old Christmas Returned! celebrates the return of Father Christmas, and with him, the holiday conviviality which had been banned by Oliver Cromwell during the English Commonwealth (1649-1660). One can only imagine the delight of the English people to return to the “excesses” removed by Cromwell and his Puritan followers! This program celebrates both sacred and secular perspectives of the season through songs and dances of the Renaissance and Baroque, sung and played on period instruments.

If you are not yet in the holiday mood, this concert is the right cure. It will also remind you what the season is all about. [Marty Lash, Door County Advocate]