The Reindeer Games: Unison Choral Teacher's Handbook (Includes Reproducible Student Pages)

Albrecht and Althouse have crafted a musical that actually sustains engagement across a full 25 minutes without exhausting your singers or your sanity. The dual-narrator structure (Seymour Snow and Candy Cane) keeps momentum moving between songs, and the flexible staging means you can scale participation to your ensemble size. The reproducible pages and staging notes handle the heavy lifting of production, so you're free to focus on the singing itself.

Imagine a televised winter sports competition filtered through pure joy: upbeat, colorful, full of playful moments, with just enough competitive tension to keep the story moving. The music bounces with holiday energy without leaning on heavy sentimentality, striking the balance between entertainment and authentic musicality.

Elementary and middle school choirs in grades two through seven who need a winter concert that is genuinely fun to perform, not just cute. Directors managing mixed ability levels will appreciate the unison voicing, which keeps rehearsal manageable while the staging and narrative framework keep students invested.

• Give narrators clear blocking that mirrors sportscasters: animated hand gestures, quick pivots between stage zones, and vocal energy that matches each 'event.' Seymour and Candy should feel like they're broadcasting live.
• Assign the unison sections to sections of your choir (green team, red team) and let them own their parts physically. Even standing singers can use subtle weight shifts and arm raises to signal their team identity during tied moments.
• Use the recorded accompaniment during rehearsals to lock in tempo, especially for the faster events (Hoof Hockey, Amazing Race). Once your singers know the material, remove the track to build independence.
• Stage the final event carefully: if the tie is genuinely suspenseful for your audience, rehearse the resolution so singers react authentically. Genuine surprise reads better than over-acted confusion.

This works as your main winter concert event, or as the centerpiece of a holiday program where you frame it with simpler seasonal songs or instrumental pieces. The 25-minute runtime fits a full concert slot, and the built-in humor and novelty events give audiences a genuine night of entertainment rather than a string of shorter pieces.

• Sustaining unison singing across extended phrases and multiple songs
• Responding to narrative cues and blocking while maintaining vocal focus
• Balancing ensemble balance and blend across different age/ability levels
• Understanding basic musical theater structure (exposition, conflict, resolution)
• Following a conductor's cues in performance while interacting with narrators and staging