Bath Abbey's Christmas concerts are on sale: Messiah on 4 and 5 December, A Christmas Celebration on 12 December. Carol service dates are not out yet.

Bath Abbey has eight Christmas concerts on its 2026 calendar, from 20 November to 2 January, and they are on sale now through Bath Box Office. What it has not yet published are the Abbey’s own carol services: Advent carols, Shoppers’ Carols, the Nine Lessons and Carols, and the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services. Two of those needed a ticket last year, so they are worth watching for.

The quick answer

  • Messiah: Bath Choral Society, Friday 4 and Saturday 5 December, 7.30pm.
  • A Christmas Celebration, the Abbey choirs’ family concert with audience carols: Saturday 12 December, 7pm. The Abbey says it is “in high demand” and recommends booking early.
  • Carol services: not announced yet for 2026. Last year the Advent service and the Nine Lessons and Carols were ticketed, at most four tickets per household.

The 2026 Christmas concerts

All of these are listed on Bath Abbey’s events calendar and booked through Bath Box Office. Neither published prices for them on 6 October, so check the price at the booking stage.

  • Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at Christmas. Friday 20 November, 7.30pm to 9.30pm. London Concertante open with the overture from Handel’s Messiah, then play Corelli’s and Torelli’s Christmas concertos before The Four Seasons (Bath Abbey).
  • WINTER with St Martin’s Voices. Saturday 21 November, 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Classic FM presenter Zeb Soanes and the choir from St Martin-in-the-Fields, with Silent Night and In the Bleak Midwinter alongside new carols by Lucy Walker, Cecilia McDowall and Reena Esmail (Bath Abbey).
  • The Snowman at Bath Abbey. Saturday 28 November, 7pm. This one is on Bath Box Office’s ticketing system but not yet on the Abbey’s own calendar, so we have no details beyond the date and time.
  • Handel Messiah with Bath Choral Society. Friday 4 and Saturday 5 December, 7.30pm to 10pm. Katrine Reimers conducts the 100-strong choir, which dates back to 1887, with the Bristol Ensemble and soloists Olivia Boen, Claudia Huckle, Eamonn Mulhall and Alex Ashworth (Bath Abbey).
  • A Christmas Celebration. Saturday 12 December, 7pm to 8.45pm. The Abbey choirs, including the young Melody Makers, with readings and carols the audience joins in. There is a concert bar (Bath Abbey).
  • Christmas at the Movies by Candlelight. Friday 18 December, 7.30pm to 9.30pm. London Concertante play film music from Home Alone, The Polar Express, Elf, Love Actually, White Christmas and It’s a Wonderful Life (Bath Abbey).
  • Christmas Fantasia. Saturday 19 December, 7pm to 9.30pm. Britten’s cantata St Nicolas with tenor Graham Neal, Poulenc’s Christmas motets and his Organ Concerto with the Abbey organist Adam Field, and Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols (Bath Abbey).
  • Viennese Christmas Spectacular by Candlelight. Saturday 2 January 2027, 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Johann Strauss II, ending with The Blue Danube, plus Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite (Bath Abbey).

Separately, Fever’s candlelit string quartet concerts are in the Abbey on Friday 6 November: Queen vs ABBA at 7pm and the music of Hans Zimmer at 9pm, the latter listed from £20.48, for ages 8 and over (Bath Abbey).

Carol services: what happened in 2025

The Abbey’s calendar shows no services for Advent or Christmas 2026 yet. Its 2025 listings are the best guide to the shape of the season. They are last year’s dates, not this year’s:

  • Advent Festival Service, Sunday 30 November 2025, at 5pm and again at 7.15pm because of demand. Ticketed, limited to four per household, with admission by pre-booked ticket only (Bath Abbey, 2025).
  • Shoppers’ Carols, short carol services of about 20 to 30 minutes with no booking, on Saturday 29 November and 6 December at 2pm, 3pm, 4pm and 5pm, and Saturday 13 December at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm. On 29 November and 6 December the Abbey closed to visitors at 1pm for them.
  • Family Nativity Service, Sunday 21 December at 3.30pm, with children invited to come dressed as shepherds, angels, wise men or stars.
  • Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, Tuesday 23 December at 5pm and 7.15pm, sung by the Bath Abbey Boys Choir with the Lay Clerks. Ticketed.
  • Christmas Eve: Carol Praise at 3pm and 5pm, and Midnight Communion at 11pm.
  • Christmas Day: services at 8am, 9.30am and 11.30am. The Abbey was closed on Boxing Day.

If 2026 follows the same pattern, the ticketed Advent and Nine Lessons services are the ones to book as soon as they appear. We will add the 2026 dates here when the Abbey publishes them.

Getting there

The Abbey is in the middle of the city, and from Thursday 26 November to Sunday 13 December it sits beside the Bath Christmas Market, so evening concerts on those dates mean the busiest streets of the year. The Abbey names the nearest short-stay car parks as the Podium in Northgate Street, BA1 5AL, and Southgate in St James’s Parade, BA1 1TP, each about five minutes’ walk. Our parking in Bath page has the council tariffs, and Bath roadworks and travel carries any closures.

More for the season: the Christmas lights and Snowman trail, Bath on Ice, the Theatre Royal pantomime and the Roman Baths at Christmas.

Every date and time above was taken from Bath Abbey’s own events calendar and Bath Box Office on 6 October 2026.