How to Build a Holiday Set List: What to Play From Thanksgiving to New Year's

To build a holiday set, work out how many songs fit your slot, give each song a job, and match the mix to the date. Thanksgiving is on Thursday, November 26, and holiday listening is already building toward it. A set that works on December 23 can feel early on November 14 and stale on December 28. This guide shows how to build one in clusters, where to put a fresh song and how to spend your voice across a busy month.

Start with the length and the clusters

Sonicbids' Christiana Usenza suggests allowing about five minutes per song, including transitions. By that math, 45 minutes is nine songs and an hour is twelve. A Disc Makers guide on Hypebot uses a 12-song set as its example and suggests grouping the songs into clusters of three or four. Within a cluster, the tempo builds or eases, or the songs share a mood, so the set feels like a journey instead of one long line.

Match the set to the date

Holiday listening has a shape. ReverbNation's Kevin Breuner, quoted on Hypebot, says it "begins mid-November," accelerates by Thanksgiving, peaks on Christmas Eve and drops considerably on Christmas Day. "By New Year's, it's non-existent," he said. RouteNote reported last year that five festive tracks were in Spotify's Top 200 on November 1, and 14 two weeks later, and that by the second week of December festive music "essentially takes over."

That is streaming data, not live crowds, so treat it as a guide. Here is one way to use it. These are suggestions, not rules.

• Before Thanksgiving: lean on warm winter and gratitude songs, with a few holiday songs near the end. Some rooms are not ready for a full carol set yet.
• Thanksgiving to mid-December: bring the holiday songs in, but keep a couple of non-holiday songs so the set has a home base.
• The week of Christmas: go all in. People came for it.
• After Christmas: drop the carols. Play winter and look-ahead songs, or your regular set.

Give every song a job

Before you put anything in order, give each candidate a job. Match the room too. Sonicbids says sit-down concerts suit ballads with a few upbeat songs, while bars and clubs call for a strong groove with a few slower songs to let the set breathe.

• The opener: upbeat, engaging, a proven favorite you can play comfortably and not a big stretch for your voice. The Disc Makers guide warns: "A brand-new composition or your trickiest arrangement is probably not a great opener."
• The familiar ones: songs the room already knows. They earn trust.
• The slow one: a quiet carol or ballad about two-thirds of the way in. Sonicbids suggests a dip there in a 30-minute set, then a strong finish.
• The fresh one: a song they have not heard. More on this below.
• The closer: something memorable the room can sing. Oxford researchers who followed adult-education classes found that singing groups felt close to each other faster than craft or writing groups did, though by the end of seven months all the classes reported similar closeness. That was a classroom, not a concert, but it is a fair reason to end on a song everyone can join.
• The spares: two or three extras for a long slot or an encore.

Where one fresh song fits

A holiday set is a good place to try one song the room has not heard. Carvin Audio's guide to working originals into a cover set says one or two is usually fine if the material is well crafted, that originals have to fit the style of the set, and that announcing one in advance sets a lower expectation. Tell the crowd afterward instead. A good spot is right after a strong, familiar song.

A fresh holiday song does not have to be about Christmas. A winter song can carry past December 26, as our guide to choosing between a Christmas song and a winter song explains. Traditional carols can be free to arrange, but check the version first: see our guide to public-domain songs. If you also want to release your version, the Hypebot holiday guide advises delivering music to digital platforms by mid-November, so look at our Christmas single timeline early.

On Starchild you can browse holiday songs or songs to sing, hear each one in different styles and voices before you license it, change the key and tempo live, and duck the demo vocal to sing over it. A Starchild license covers performing the song live, so a licensed song can go straight into the set. If you want a song to be yours alone through the season, an exclusive license takes it off the market for the term (3, 6 or 12 months), and the holder can renew. Our guide to an exclusive license for a holiday single covers the timing.

Spend your voice like a budget

December can mean many shows in a few weeks. The NIDCD advises that you avoid speaking or singing when your voice is hoarse or tired, take vocal naps, drink plenty of water and avoid the extremes of your vocal range. It adds that you should rest your voice when you are sick. The Disc Makers guide also advises against opening with a song that demands a big vocal range, and against stacking several of those songs back to back.

So mark your most demanding songs and keep them in different clusters. If a late set is wearing on you, move a song down a few semitones. Our guide to finding the key of a song shows how to count the steps. This is general information, not medical advice. If your voice stays hoarse, see a doctor.

A one-hour sample

Here is a 12-song plan for a gig on December 18. It is a sample, not a rule.

• Songs 1 to 3, the welcome: an upbeat opener you know cold, a familiar favorite and a warm mid-tempo winter song.
• Songs 4 to 6, settling in: a familiar holiday song, then your fresh song, then another familiar one.
• Songs 7 to 9, the dip: a lively song, a quiet carol or ballad at song 8, then a lively song again.
• Songs 10 to 12, the finish: your biggest crowd song, a sing-along, then the closer.
• Spares: two or three extras, ready if the slot runs long.

Before you go on

• Write the set list in large print and rehearse it in order, with your talking points. The Disc Makers guide says to stay flexible if the slot is cut short or the room is not responding.
• Watch the room. Sonicbids calls your audience "your best mood meter."
• Keep your license certificates on your phone for any licensed song. Licensing songs to perform live explains who holds which license at a venue.
• Note which songs got the strongest reactions, and use them next season.

Sources

• Hypebot (Disc Makers): How to create the best setlist
• Sonicbids: How to Create a Compelling Setlist
• Hypebot (ReverbNation): How to Release Holiday Music Successfully
• RouteNote: Is Christmas music arriving earlier every year?
• Carvin Audio: How to work originals into your cover band set
• NIDCD: Taking Care of Your Voice
• ScienceDaily (University of Oxford): Singing's secret power: The Ice-breaker Effect