Tickets are on sale now for the annual festival of holiday music.

Holidays at Westminster, Westminster Choir College of Rider University’s annual festival of holiday music, continues this season with a series of performances on the Westminster campus in Princeton and in the Princeton University Chapel.

The Westminster Concert Bell Choir, conducted by Kathleen Ebling Shaw, will open the series with performances on Saturday, December 3 and Sunday, December 4 at 4 p.m. in Bristol Chapel on the Westminster campus in Princeton. The program, titled A Child is Born, will feature familiar carols and favorite children’s songs, including Jolly Old St. Nicholas, The First Noel, A Charlie Brown Christmas and Leroy Anderson’s popular Sleigh Ride.  Composed of Westminster Choir College students, the Westminster Concert Bell Choir has been praised for its musicality and technical virtuosity.  It performs on the world’s largest range of handbells and Choirchimes, and it has appeared on several holiday season broadcasts, including the NBC Today Show and the annual Christmas Tree lighting at Rockefeller Center. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for students and seniors.

Westminster’s annual Evening of Readings and Carols will be presented in the Princeton University Chapel three times this year: Friday, December 9 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, December 10 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.  One of the area’s most popular holiday concerts, it includes music for choir, organ and brass interspersed with seasonal readings.  The audience also has the opportunity to join in singing Christmas carols.  This year’s program includes a procession to the Kyrie from James Whitbourn’s Missa Carolae, which has become a Readings and Carols tradition, Dan Forrest’s Festival First Noel and Andrew Carter’s arrangement of I Saw Three Ships.  Tickets for the Friday and Saturday evening performances are $70, $55 and $40.  General admission tickets for the Saturday afternoon performance are $45.  Patrons contributing an additional $25 to the Westminster scholarship program will receive preferred seating.

To order tickets or to learn more about Westminster’s Holidays at Westminster performances go to www.rider.edu/arts or call the box office at 609-921-2663.