Caroling, sleigh bells and family singalongs are a part of the holiday tradition.

The Lawrence area offers a variety of live performances to help you celebrate the season. Concerts from the Lawrence Civic Choir, Kansas University and Baker University are just a few of this year’s highlights.

At Baker University’s Rice Auditorium on Dec. 7, the school’s choral ensembles, instrumental ensembles and Speech Choir will perform a lineup of familiar carols and other festive tunes, including “Angels We Have Heard On High” and the closer, “Silent Night.”

The annual Christmas Candlelight Vespers, now in its 84th year, will give two free performances that day at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.

In honor of its 40th anniversary, the Lawrence Civic Choir will sing a program of old favorites from previous performances at their annual winter concert Dec. 13 at Lawrence Free Methodist Church, 3001 Lawrence Ave.

This year’s performance, dubbed “How Can We Keep From Singing?”, will feature classics like “The First Noel,” Rachmaninoff’s “Ave Maria” and more contemporary hits such as Vince Guaraldi Trio’s “Christmas Time is Here” from “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

Another longstanding tradition, the KU School of Music’s Holiday Vespers is marking its 90th anniversary this year on Dec. 7 at the Lied Center of Kansas, 1600 Stewart Drive.

As in years past, the KU Symphonic Chorus and KU orchestra will perform a mix of secular songs (including non-Christmas-themed pieces like “Rhapsody of Hanukkah”), and will include the annual singalong with everyone invited to join in.

It’s a gift that is passed down “from generation to generation,” says Paul Tucker, director of choral activities at the KU School of Music.

“There’s something driving it; there is something people are attached to,” Tucker says. “Many of the people who went to school here a long time ago are invested in it, and they bring their families now because they have memories of it.”