The Smoot Theatre is decorated in Christmas regalia for the annual Smoot Hometown Christmas at 8 p.m. Friday. Featuring local musicians in the Smoot House Band, tickets are $20 and are available at SmootTheatre.com. (Photo provided by Felice Jorgeson)

PARKERSBURG — The Christmas season will be kicked off Friday at the Smoot Theatre in downtown Parkersburg with the annual Hometown Christmas concert.

The 8 p.m. show features the Smoot House Band performing traditional and contemporary Christmas songs and carols.

For tickets, visit the Smoot website at SmootTheatre.com. Tickets are $20.

Hometown Christmas was started about 30 years ago by Mary and Harold Eberhardt. It has continued each year as a mainstay at the Smoot stage and heralds the Christmas season, Smoot Artistic Director Felice Jorgeson said.

The concert will begin with the rousing arrangement of “Go Tell It on the Mountain” followed by the quiet of “Christmas Time Is Here.”

Felice Jorgeson of the Smoot Theatre directs the Smoot House Band. The Smoot’s annual Christmas show, Hometown Christmas, is at 8 p.m. Friday. (Photo provided by Felice Jorgeson)

Many times throughout the evening, the House Band will be joined by a string section with the Smoot Singers’ rendition of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.”

Vocalists include Marsha Parsons singing “Man with a Bag” and Brett Meade singing “Baby It’s Cold Outside.”

“The Christmas Song,” a Christmas favorite, will be sung a cappella and unamplified by the Smoot Singers. Hughie Lovelady’s alto sax rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” will tug at the heartstrings of all who love Christmas.

“A couple of weeks ago, at the end of rehearsal one of the trombone players came to me (as I was talking to Hughie. The trombone player said ‘Hey, we don’t have a piece to showcase Hughie here.'” Jorgeson said. “We all agreed that we had nothing.”

Lovelady called a friend in Las Vegas who was an arranger, Jorgeson said.

“Within nine days we had the new arrangement of ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,'” Jorgeson said. “It is beautiful! I know everyone will enjoy this show because it is packed full of variety.”

Most of the show’s music is traditional carols, dressed up for big band, but there is one offering that is more recent holiday music associated with the season, a medley of music from the movie “The Polar Express.”

The 2024 edition of Hometown Christmas will include two family groups, Jorgeson said.

“Silver Bells/O Holy Night” will be performed by three members of one family: Cathy Mace on piano, her daughter Mandy Philpot and her grandson Aiden Philpot.

Mary Eddy on banjo and son Carter Eddy on guitar will perform “Jingle Bells.”

As the evening concludes, a medley of “Peace and Christmas Blessings” brings everyone back to the stage.

Members of the band include Lovelady, Jason Barr, Whitney Hess, Jeremiah Bennett, J.D. Reed, Wayne Smith, Eric Staats, Sheila Wiseman, Brian McCommon, Ben Wright, Mike Lockney, Paul Ross, Stephen Smith, Jeff Edman, David Lewis, Carter Eddy, Angie Harkness, Pat Somerville. Strings are Ashley Clark, Dan Cororon, Anita Hendrichson, Bob Herceg and Sharon Shoop with Melissa Herceg on flute.

Smoot Singers are Su Meredith, Barbara Full, Marsha Parsons, R.J. Lowe, Bob Heflin, David Rexroad, Brett Meade. The Fifth Street Boys are made up of Bryar Greene, Landon Collins, Own McCrady, Alex Cantwell, Gabe Cantwell, Paul Smith and Brian Wigal.