We have our choir sing at both the 10 pm mass and 11 am mass at one of my churches, and the other one does the midnight and 11 am. Carols start 30 minutes before mass, and we are expected to arrive an hour early.

We typically do a 30 minute prelude and 11pm televised Mass, and then have them come back for a 9am non-televised Mass on the day. I've been revisiting this in my head every year as, yes, Christmas Day is a big deal... but it's not greatly attended and the expense of having the choir there gives me some pause.

I would say that there has been a trend in Catholic parishes in the USA to emphasize Christmas Eve over Christmas Day in terms of musical splendor, shall we say. It's not uniform, but let's just say I am pleasantly surprised when I encounter musical splendor on the Day. (This year, with the Day falling on Sunday, that might be different.) Which is to say there are *plenty* of parishes where choirs appear only on the Eve and not the Day, and I view that as a lamentable thing.*

Easter is different because the Vigil is sui generis, while the Day is a Sunday.

* Then again, I grew up in a family that observed the southern German custom that St Nicholas brings the decorated tree and creche along with the presents after the little one have gone to sleep on the Eve (meaning: my parents were up until 4AM getting everything in place, took a 2 hr nap, and then awakened children starting with the youngest first to behold the full splendor for the first time. I highly recommend this approach if you have little ones.). And then, after opening gifts, Father took the children to the Mass at Dawn and we returned to eat breakfast (Mother then went to the Mass of the Day, sometimes with the older children). It was a wonderful discipline to separate young children from their (modest, in our family) loot immediately....

The choir I accompany does 10p Mass on Christmas Eve, then 11:30a Mass on Christmas Day (their normal Mass is 9:30a). Fewer preludes but otherwise generally the same choral pieces. The 11:30a Mass last year was surprisingly well attended, both by choir and congregation.

On Christmas day most choirs stay home.
Folks went last night. (We're not in Rome.)

Sad, sad, the trio of Masses this day
Just don't fit the American way.

We divide the duties- four masses and three choirs
Our schedule:
Midnight Mass- Liturgical Choir (teens and adults)
10:30pm Call
11:30 Carols
Midnight Mass
Done singing at 1:30ish

Christmas Day
8:30 Call
9:00 Mass with choral scholars and small crew
11:05 Mass- Choristers (youth choir)
12:30 Mass- Spanish choir

A former pastor used to say "Christmas is a family holiday and we respect that here", making sure the Christmas tree got hauled to the curb after 11:00 'Midnight' Mass. I haven't found this to be normal though. At St David's the main music is the 11:30 PM 'concert' prelude, but there's a choir and an offertory motet at both Masses.

It's the early vigils that kill Christmas day. I was in a parish that had 4, 6, and 8 pm vigils--and then Midnight Mass. The vigils were kid-oriented. For families it was a no-brainer to, ahem, get the Mass in early.

Mass attendance on Christmas itself was pitiful.

The parishes that do best in terms of congregational attendance on Christmas Day vs the Eve tend to:

1. Not have more than 1 or 2 vigil Masses and 1 Night Mass (which might be 10PM rather than 12AM)
2. Treat the Masses for the Day with at least equal resourcing and quality of execution. Once you treat the Day as a leftover, you've communicated a powerfully negative expectation to the congregation (and visitors).

The strangeness of Easter Vigil, if it can be called that, in Florida Catholic parishes has been notorious elsewhere for some time

I'm very curious what you are referring to, having grown up in a Catholic parish in the Diocese of Orlando.

making sure the Christmas tree got hauled to the curb after 11:00 'Midnight' Mass.

Is that an exaggeration?

It's the early vigils that kill Christmas day. I was in a parish that had 4, 6, and 8 pm vigils--and then Midnight Mass. The vigils were kid-oriented. For families it was a no-brainer to, ahem, get the Mass in early.

Mass attendance on Christmas itself was pitiful.

I wonder, sometimes, if people copy experiences from elsewhere without thinking through the consequences. The parish I grew up in had a 6, 9, and midnight (at least) AND three or so on Christmas mornings. AND THEY WERE ALL PACKED.

We have our Parish Choir sing at the Midnight Mass, with a half hour of carolling preceding. They return for the 11:30 a.m. Mass.

We have some elderly folk in our choir and sometimes they do not return, but generally there is a sizeable group for both Masses and for this I am very grateful.

I've never done it, as I fly home early Christmas morning after midnight Mass in the EF (Mass is done around 1:30 am), but yes, we still have the Noon High Mass on Christmas Day.

Easter Sunday after Easter Vigil is the worst. We're done by 2:45 am and back for 10:30 chant practice and Easter Sunday Mass. It's so exhausting, all that singing throughout the Triduum, and then Easter Sunday, short on sleep.

PS: I have never been to Christmas Midnight Mass. When I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, children were forbidden to attend at area parishes - it was adults-only.

I am also an extreme lark (genetic), normally waking around 4AM, so being up at midnight is a severe penance for me. I have celebrated Easter Vigils at that hour, and can verify it makes me incapable of singing in the morning that follows - my sinus clearing schedule is confounded by being awake at that hour. To this day, there is only one night a year where I am up at that hour is New Year's Eve due to a standing nearly 25 year tradition of a social gathering that evening - but I have to have a serious nap in the late afternoon-early evening to be able to pull that off without falling asleep in my chair.

Interesting.

The notion that the grandeur of the day is predicated on the grandeur of the music (full choir, lots of extra prelude material, additional instruments, organ and choral hymn elaborations and descants) is discussed in STtL (remember it?), but not really expressed in the official documents of the Church.

Indeed, I seem to recall reading that the level of solemnity is dictated by the nature of the liturgy and its music along with the level of ceremonial, and not the complexity of the (extra-liturgical) music.

A small schola or single cantor chanting the Propers would be just as splendorous (perhaps even more so) as brass, elaborate choral pieces and other musical accretions.

I've often felt that there is a kind of noble simplicity in the quiet joy of Christmas Day when it is experienced with just organ, and the cantor chanting the Propers and the People singing their responses and dialogues.

Anything else falls foul of our post-modern need for excess and noise when less truly could be profoundly more.

So, what role would a full choir play in the liturgy on Christmas Day other than singing polyphony or decorating the liturgical music with four-part singing?

The liturgy calls for, ideally, chanted Propers.

The issue is, I think, more complex than whether or not the choir sings both the Eve Mass and the Day. At its core there are fundamental misconceptions about the role of music, participation of the Faithful and the inherent solemnity of the day, complexity or elaborateness of the music notwithstanding.

Our English Mass choir is responsible for both the 5PM Vigil Mass and the 7PM Mass (Mass at Night). They are invited to come back for the Latin Mass at Midnight which the Latin Mass choir sings for.

8AM Christmas morning is a quiet Mass - all the regular Mass parts are sung, there is a Cantor, and Christmas Carols.

10AM is the Family Mass with emphasis on the children.

Thank you, everyone, for an interesting discussion.