Maybe This Christmas (arr. Dom Stichbury): SAB Choral Octavo

Dom Stichbury's arrangement preserves Sexsmith's subtle charm while giving SAB singers genuine musical lines to anchor the sound. The piece sits comfortably in a secular holiday concert without relying on clichés, offering something thoughtful alongside the traditional repertoire. Sexsmith's gift for conversational melody makes this accessible for developing choirs while remaining musically rewarding.

Intimate without being precious. The arrangement draws you into a quiet moment of reflection, neither melancholy nor celebratory, but honest. It feels like overhearing someone think out loud about the season, set to music that knows when to step back and let space matter.

Mixed choirs at the community, intermediate high school, and developing college level who want holiday repertoire with genuine character. Directors seeking a secular Christmas option that trusts their singers' musicianship rather than relying on festive nostalgia.

• Treat the text as spoken language first. The rhythm supports natural speech patterns, so lean into the conversational tone rather than forcing it into strict metric boxes.
• Balance the voices so the alto and bass lines remain audible; Stichbury's arrangement gives them purposeful material that shouldn't disappear under the soprano melody.
• Let the tempo breathe. This song sits in the space between contemplative and warm, so resist rushing it or making it precious.
• Emphasize the harmonic shifts that create subtle emotional turns. Stichbury's voicing choices do the heavy lifting here, so precise tuning pays immediate dividends.

Pair this with other contemporary holiday songs to show range in the genre, or use it to anchor a set of secular winter repertoire. Its four pages make it an ideal companion piece in a longer concert where you want variety in tone and approach.

• Singing with conversational phrasing in pop idiom
• Balancing three independent vocal lines while maintaining ensemble cohesion
• Interpreting harmonic color through precise intonation
• Managing rhythm that prioritizes text delivery over metric regularity