Christmas Tree Lighting Songs: A Run of Show for Your Town, School or Church Ceremony

The short answer

A tree lighting is a 30 to 45 minute event with one moment that matters: the second the lights come on. Plan the music around that second.

1. Prelude (15 to 20 minutes): instrumental Christmas music, low, while people arrive.
2. Welcome and performers: a school choir, a church choir or a local band. Two or three songs each, no more.
3. Crowd sing-along: two or three carols everyone knows, with the words printed.
4. Countdown and lighting: the crowd counts down from ten, the lights come on, and one song starts on "zero". "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" is the safe pick; the crowd singing "O Christmas Tree" is the classic one.
5. Santa arrives, if he is coming: "Here Comes Santa Claus".
6. Postlude: upbeat Christmas songs while families take photos and get hot chocolate.

Three things decide whether it goes well: cue the lighting song so it starts on the exact second, print only lyrics you are allowed to print, and do not run a public event's speaker from a personal streaming app. All three are explained below.

Who this is for

You are the PTA parent, the parks and recreation coordinator, the HOA board member, the church events volunteer or the Main Street association member who said yes to "can you handle the music?" Most tree lightings happen the evening after Thanksgiving (Friday, November 27, 2026) or on the first weekend of December (December 4 to 6), so you have two to three weeks.

The tradition is older than most people think. The first National Christmas Tree was lit on the Ellipse in Washington on Christmas Eve 1923, when President Calvin Coolidge "pushed the button" in front of about 3,000 people (National Park Service). Your crowd will be smaller, but the moment is the same: a countdown, a switch and a cheer.

If your event lights a menorah as well, Hanukkah 2026 begins at sundown on Friday, December 4. Our Hanukkah songs for candle lighting covers that part of the evening.

A run of show you can copy

Most community lightings happen after dark. In early December the sun sets between about 4:15 and 5:15 p.m. across most of the US, so check your local sunset time and plan the lighting for half an hour or more after it, when the sky is dark enough for the tree to glow. The times below assume a 4:30 sunset.

Give a printed copy to the emcee, the person on the light switch and the person on the music. The emcee owns the countdown, and the other two follow the emcee, not the clock.

Keep the speeches before the lighting short. Families with small children leave once the lights are on, so anything you want everyone to hear has to happen first.

The song for the moment the lights come on

Choose a song that is loud and recognizable from its first second. A long, quiet intro wastes the cheer.

• "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee. Written by Johnny Marks and recorded in 1958, it is about a tree, everyone knows it, and it is fun for every age.
• "O Christmas Tree", sung by the whole crowd. The German "O Tannenbaum" in Ernst Anschütz's 1824 version. Have the emcee start it right after "zero", or play the Vince Guaraldi Trio's instrumental from A Charlie Brown Christmas underneath. It is quieter than a pop song and many towns prefer it.
• "Wizards in Winter" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The instrumental from their 2004 album The Lost Christmas Eve. It became the light-show song after Carson Williams synchronized 16,000 lights on his house to it in 2004 and the video spread online (Wikipedia). Choose it if your tree has animated lights or the crowd skews teenage.
• "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by Andy Williams. Big brass, instant recognition, good for an older crowd.
• "Carol of the Bells", instrumental. Dramatic and fast. Pick a recording that is loud from the first bar.

Watch out for "Christmas Lights" by Coldplay. The title is perfect and the song is about being alone after a breakup at Christmas. Listen to every lyric of every song on the list, start to finish, before the night.

Making the countdown land on the second

The light switch and the music are run by two different people, and the lights usually come on a moment after "zero". Small delays like this are invisible. What ruins it is the song starting five seconds late because it was still loading, or an ad playing first.

1. Load the song before the event starts. Play it for a few seconds on the event Wi-Fi or mobile data, pause it, and drag the progress bar back to 0:00. A paused song that has already loaded starts almost instantly. Our New Year's Eve midnight timing guide explains the same trick for a different countdown.
2. Put the music person next to the switch, or at least where they can see the emcee's face. "Five, four, three, two, one", then both people press on "zero".
3. Rehearse once at the venue with the real switch, the real speaker and the real song. If the lights take two seconds to warm up, start the song a beat late.
4. Have a plan B for a dead switch. It happens. The emcee says "Let's try that again, louder this time", and the crowd counts down twice. Keep the song paused until the lights actually come on.

Songs for each part of the evening

Prelude (instrumental, low volume)

• The Vince Guaraldi Trio's A Charlie Brown Christmas album: "Christmas Time Is Here", "Skating", "Linus and Lucy"
• "Sleigh Ride" by Leroy Anderson, in an orchestral recording
• Instrumental carols by a brass quintet or a handbell choir

For a children's choir

• "Jingle Bells"
• "Up on the Housetop"
• "Deck the Halls"
• "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", which is a good closer for their set

For the crowd sing-along (see the next section on what you can print)

• "Jingle Bells"
• "Deck the Halls"
• "O Christmas Tree"
• "Joy to the World" or "Silent Night", if your event is a church event or your community expects a sacred carol

When Santa arrives

• "Here Comes Santa Claus" by Gene Autry
• "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town"
• "Jolly Old St. Nicholas", if the choir is singing it live

Postlude, while people take photos

• "A Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives
• "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms
• "Feliz Navidad" by José Feliciano
• "Sleigh Ride" by The Ronettes

Skip at a family event: "Santa Baby" and "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (the lyrics are adult flirting) and "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" (not every grandparent in the crowd will laugh). For a public school or city event where not everyone celebrates Christmas, our list of winter songs that aren't Christmas songs has songs about snow and the season with every lyric checked.

The printed song sheet: what you can and cannot print

In the US, songs published before 1931 are now in the public domain. Works from 1930 entered it on January 1, 2026 (Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain). That means the traditional carols are free to print on a song sheet or project on a screen:

• "Jingle Bells" (published 1857)
• "Deck the Halls"
• "O Christmas Tree" (English versions of the 1824 German text)
• "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"
• "Joy to the World", "Silent Night", "O Come, All Ye Faithful", "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and "The First Noel"

The newer favorites are still under copyright: "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1949), "Frosty the Snowman" (1950), "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (1958) and "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" (1934). Printing their full lyrics for a crowd needs permission from the publisher. Churches often already have a lyric license through their worship-music licensing service; ask whether it covers events outside services.

The practical answer: build the sing-along from the old carols and play the modern songs as recordings. Print the sheet in large type, because it will be dark, and put the first line of each carol in bold so people find their place quickly.

Do you need a music license for a tree lighting?

Maybe, and it is worth a phone call. Playing music to a crowd in a park or a town square is a public performance under US copyright law (17 U.S.C. § 101). Songwriters license that through ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR.

What usually settles it:

• Ask the venue or the city first. Many towns, parks departments, malls and schools already hold performing-rights licenses for their events. If the event is on their property and they are a sponsor, you may already be covered.
• There is an exemption for some free events. US law exempts a live performance of a song with no commercial purpose, no admission charge, and no fee paid to the performers, promoters or organizers (17 U.S.C. § 110(4)). A volunteer school choir singing "Rudolph" at a free town lighting can fit that. A paid DJ, a ticketed area, or a business sponsor using the event for promotion can take you outside it.
• The worship exemption is narrower than people think. It covers music "in the course of services at a place of worship" (17 U.S.C. § 110(3)). A community tree lighting on the church lawn is usually not a service.
• Your streaming app's terms are a separate issue. Spotify, Apple Music and Trending Music are all licensed for personal listening, so none of them is the right source for a public event's speaker system. Our guide to playing music in a shop explains why, and what business music services include.

The music you are clearly free to use is live singing of the public domain carols above, or music the venue has licensed. This is general information about US law, not legal advice. Outside the US the rules are different, so ask your local collecting society.

Running the sound outdoors in the cold

1. Use a PA or powered speaker that is meant for outdoors, not a living-room Bluetooth speaker. Outside, sound has no walls to bounce off, so it needs much more volume than you expect.
2. Connect with a cable if you can. Bluetooth can drop when a crowd stands between the phone and the speaker. If you must use Bluetooth, pair it the day before and make sure no one else's phone is still connected to it.
3. Turn on Do Not Disturb: open Control Center, tap Focus, then Do Not Disturb. A ringing phone pauses the music, often right at the countdown.
4. Set Auto-Lock to Never in Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock, and change it back afterwards.
5. Keep the phone warm. Cold drains an iPhone battery quickly. Keep it in an inside pocket until you need it, and bring a battery pack and a long charging cable.
6. Bring gloves you can tap a screen with, or a stylus. Fumbling with bare, cold fingers at "three, two, one" is how songs start late.
7. Sound-check where the crowd will stand, not next to the speaker. Raise the volume a little once the crowd arrives, because bodies and winter coats absorb sound.

Planning and rehearsing with Trending Music

Trending Music is our app, so weigh this section accordingly. It is a good tool for planning the music and practicing it at home, and as explained above, not the source for the event's speakers.

1. Build the run of show as playlists. Search for a song, tap ••• next to it (or press and hold it), choose Add to Playlist, then New Playlist. Name them in order, such as "1 Prelude", "2 Sing-along", "3 Lighting song", "4 Santa" and "5 Postlude", and you can hear the whole evening start to finish before you book anything. Our guide to making a playlist on iPhone has the details.
2. Share it with the committee. In the Library tab, open Playlists, tap + and choose New Collaborative (it needs a free Trending account). Send the invite link to the choir director and the emcee so everyone hears the same songs. See how collaborative playlists work.
3. Help the choir learn the words. Synced lyrics are free, so kids can follow along at home. Karaoke mode lowers the lead vocal so they sing the part themselves; everyone gets one free karaoke song a week, and after that it is a Premium feature. For a full practice plan, see helping kids learn their winter concert songs.
4. Turn off Autoplay in Settings > Playback during rehearsals. It is on by default and keeps similar music playing when a playlist ends.

The free version shows full-screen ads between songs once you have been listening for a while, and the music pauses until someone closes the ad. That is fine at home, and one more reason not to run the event from it.

What songs are played at a Christmas tree lighting?

Most tree lightings use instrumental Christmas music as people arrive, a school or church choir, a crowd sing-along of carols like "Jingle Bells", "Deck the Halls" and "O Christmas Tree", one upbeat song the moment the lights come on (often "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee), and "Here Comes Santa Claus" if Santa arrives.

How long is a tree lighting ceremony?

Usually 30 to 45 minutes from the welcome to the lighting, plus 15 to 20 minutes of prelude music as people arrive and as long as you like for photos afterwards. Keep the part before the lighting short, because families with small children leave soon after the lights come on.

Which Christmas songs are public domain?

In the US, songs published before 1931 are public domain, including "Jingle Bells", "Deck the Halls", "O Christmas Tree", "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", "Joy to the World" and "Silent Night". Later songs such as "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" are still under copyright. A specific recording or a modern arrangement of an old carol can also be protected.

Before the night

This week, ask the venue or the city whether they hold a performing-rights license. Next week, confirm the choirs and their songs, print the sing-along sheet from public domain carols, and choose the lighting song. The day before, pair the speaker and charge everything. On the night, load the lighting song, pause it at 0:00, and watch the emcee.

If the choir is also caroling around the neighborhood later in the month, Christmas caroling songs everyone knows has a door-to-door set list and the words. For your own listening the rest of the season, the best Christmas songs is sorted by moment.

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