This holiday show is a musical celebration inspired by the Christmas sing-alongs that Grammy Award winner Dan Zanes and jazz vocalist and music therapist Claudia Zanes experienced every year while growing up in New Hampshire. That was then, and the theme was Christmas. This is now, and the 21st century version of these legendary parties includes so much more than Christmas classics.

The Holiday Sing Along songbook—printed and distributed to audience members—includes seasonal numbers from a variety of traditions, languages and locations. Songs from Puerto Rico, Korea, Wales, Tunisia, Haiti and Washington, D.C., are represented alongside reimagined versions of ones we all know and love, such as “Let It Snow,” “Silent Night” and “Deck the Halls.” Hanukkah, Korean New Year, Kwanzaa and the winter solstice are also celebrated.

For this show, Smithsonian Folkways recording artists Dan + Claudia have taken their electric folk sound to a fresh place with jazz vocalist and recent Howard University graduate Tyree Austin alongside multi-instrumentalist and children’s music star Elena Moon Park. The result is an inviting blend of four voices with guitar, violin, trumpet, harmonica, flute, spoons, percussion and mandolin that artfully brings the intimate feeling of a living room to the stage.

The quartet embody the festive, far-reaching spirit of the season and the legacy of intergenerational communal musicmaking. It’s in these songs that we can renew our connections to one another and imagine the best of life’s possibilities for the year ahead. The Holiday Sing Along is an ideal, sensory-friendly presentation.

Admission to this performance is free. However, first-access passes are required.

Please note: First-access passes expire 15 minutes prior to the performance. First-access passes must be obtained for every member of your party regardless of age. There is a limit of six passes per household. Guests will be let in on a first-come, first-served basis as seats become available.