Songs of the Season 2026: Paris Community Choir

"Songs of the Season" is the Paris Community Choir's annual holiday concert, held each December at the Brown Centre. The choir brings together singers from across Lamar County, performing a program of traditional carols, contemporary holiday arrangements, and seasonal classics. The 2026 edition promises the same warm, full-bodied choral sound that has made this concert a fixture on the Paris holiday calendar, with an expanded repertoire and a few new arrangements that the choir has been working on since early fall.

The concert is part of the Paris Community Theatre's 2026–2027 season but stands apart as a purely musical evening. There is no staging, no blocking, no dialogue. The focus is entirely on the voices, arranged in full choral formation on the Brown Centre stage. The theatre's acoustics are well-suited to choral music, and the holiday program tends to draw an audience that includes regular PCT patrons and first-time attendees who come specifically for the seasonal music.

The choir

The Paris Community Choir is a volunteer ensemble that draws from the broader Lamar County community. Membership is open to anyone who loves to sing, and the group rehearses weekly in the months leading up to each performance. The choir is directed by a local music educator, and the repertoire ranges from classical choral works to modern arrangements that keep the program accessible to a general audience. What makes the choir effective is its consistency. Year after year, the same group of committed singers shows up, rehearses, and delivers a concert that punches above what you'd expect from a volunteer community ensemble.

For the 2026 holiday concert, the choir is preparing a mix of traditional carols, contemporary seasonal favorites, and at least one piece with audience participation. The program typically runs about 90 minutes with an intermission, and the atmosphere is both formal enough to feel like a real concert and relaxed enough that families with children feel welcome.

Part of a holiday weekend in Paris

"Songs of the Season" falls on the Monday after a full weekend of holiday events in Paris. The Christmas in Fair Park craft show runs December 4–5 at the fairgrounds, and the Paris Christmas Parade of Lights steps off on Saturday, December 5 at 6:00 PM. The choir concert on Monday, December 14 extends the season with a mid-December evening that feels different from the weekend bustle. It is quieter, more focused, and built around the kind of communal listening that can only happen in a room full of people paying attention to the same thing.

Why it matters for the area

A functioning community choir, like a community theatre, is a signal of cultural infrastructure that most cities the size of Paris could not sustain. Paris does sustain it, year after year, because enough residents value live performance enough to show up, rehearse, perform, and attend. For anyone considering a move to Lamar County, the existence of organizations like the Paris Community Choir adds depth to the lifestyle conversation. It says that this is a place where people make their own culture rather than waiting for it to arrive from somewhere else.

The drive from 3870 County Road 45080 to the Brown Centre is about 20 minutes. Mid-December in Northeast Texas can be cold and dark by 7:00 PM, which makes the walk from the parking lot to the theatre door part of the seasonal experience. The lights on the downtown square, the crowd filing in, the warmth of the lobby. It is the kind of evening that reminds you why small-town holiday traditions still matter.