For decades, Angelenos have marked Christmas Eve with a trip downtown to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for the L.A. County Holiday Celebration. That tradition is getting a shake-up this year: the free, 67th annual show is moving to Sunday, Dec. 20, 2026, with two separate live performances instead of one long Christmas Eve show.
The celebration has long been considered Southern California's largest free holiday show, one that organizers describe as highlighting the diverse artistry, cultures and communities that call Los Angeles County home, according to The Music Center. For the 2026 edition, the show will offer two identical 90-minute performances at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., a notable shift from the three-hour single live performance held on Christmas Eve in recent years, as detailed by PBS SoCal.
As NBC Los Angeles notes, the event has been held on Dec. 24 for decades, making this year's move to a date four days earlier a real departure from the holiday calendar many Angeleno families have built around it. The celebration will feature 12 local music ensembles, choirs and dance companies this year, per the Music Center's event page.
Who's Taking the Stage This Year
Returning favorites on the 2026 bill include chanteuse and songwriter Jessica Fichot and youth ensemble Harmonic Bronze, per the same PBS SoCal release. New additions to the lineup include Malaya Filipino American Dance Arts and Indian classical and contemporary dance company Shakti Dance Company, both making their celebration debut this year.
The event's scale has shifted year over year. The 2025 celebration was billed by DowntownLA.com as a free, three-hour live performance featuring more than 20 local music ensembles, choirs and dance companies, while a separate PBS SoCal release for that same year cited 21 locally based groups. The year before that, the 2024 show featured a lineup of 28 diverse artists from the Los Angeles area, as reported by the Daily News, with officials at the time saying the show was designed to welcome a new generation of audiences.
How to Reserve Free Tickets
Admission remains free, but reservations are required. Tickets will be released in three separate daily drops on Dec. 8, 9 and 10, 2026, beginning at 10 a.m. each day, according to the Music Center. Members of the public may reserve up to four tickets per person, either online, by calling 213-972-0711, or in person at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office, per NBC Los Angeles and PBS SoCal.
That window is notably earlier and shorter than last year's process: for the 2025 event, ticket allotments were released daily from Dec. 16 through Dec. 20, also capped at four tickets per person, according to DowntownLA.com. The celebration was founded in 1959 by the late Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn and remains sponsored by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and presented by The Music Center.
Watching From Home on Christmas
Those who miss out on tickets, or simply prefer to watch from the couch, will still get a Christmas Eve tradition. PBS SoCal will broadcast the celebration as one program on Thursday, Dec. 24, 2026, at 3 p.m., with an additional encore broadcast on Dec. 25 at 8 p.m. The program will also stream starting Dec. 24 at 3 p.m. on holidaycelebration.org, pbssocal.org and the free PBS app, per the PBS SoCal announcement.
