For nearly a century, the Capital University Christmas Festival has welcomed generations of students, alumni, families, and friends into the beauty and wonder of the Christmas season. The 2026 Festival continues that treasured tradition as Capital University’s choral ensembles—Chapel Choir, Choral Union, and Cantabile—join instrumentalists from the Conservatory of Music and the greater Columbus arts community for an immersive celebration of music, story, faith, and light.

Set in the intimate beauty of Mees Hall, the Christmas Festival surrounds the audience with music from throughout the hall, weaving beloved carols and extraordinary musical repertoire together with readings of Scripture, poetry, and prose. More than a concert, the Festival invites us to enter deeply into the mystery and meaning of Christmas.

This Year’s Theme: “O Hush the Noise: A Weary World Rejoices”

Our world can be a noisy place. We live amid competing voices, division, anxiety, distraction, and weariness—conditions that can make genuine listening increasingly difficult.

This year’s Festival begins with an invitation from the beloved carol It Came Upon the Midnight Clear:

“O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
and hear the angels sing.”

“O Hush the Noise” is not an invitation to ignore the world’s troubles or silence difficult voices. It is an invitation to become still enough to listen: to one another, to the deepest longings within ourselves, and to the voice of God calling us toward peace.

At Christmas, that invitation meets another familiar proclamation. In O Holy Night, we hear of a world that has waited long for light until, suddenly, “the weary world rejoices.”

The weariness is real—but it is not the end of the story.

Through the mystery of Christmas, stillness gives way to listening, listening opens a path toward healing, darkness receives light, and weariness discovers the possibility of joy. “O Hush the Noise: A Weary World Rejoices” invites us to experience that transformation together through music: from noise toward peace, from division toward communion, and from weariness toward hope.

Experience the Festival

Come hear treasured carols alongside compelling music old and new, join your voice with ours in song, and experience Mees Hall transformed by one of Capital University’s most enduring traditions.
Whether the season finds you joyful, searching, burdened, hopeful—or simply weary—we invite you to hush the noise and hear the angels sing.

Come, weary world. Rejoice.

Performances

Thursday, December 3, 2026 — 7:00 p.m.

Friday, December 4, 2026 — 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, December 5, 2026 — 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, December 6, 2026 — 3:30 p.m.