A Tuba Christmas in Victoria, B.C. 2018

The date: Saturday, December 8, 2018. The streets were thronged with Christmas shoppers and sightseers. Children freed from the bonds of school. Nine to fivers with family weekends off. Teenagers laughing and flashing photos with their cellphones. Then I entered Market Square in downtown Victoria. The last time I was at Market Square was at a summer Jazz festival - hot and full of energy. I did not expect the same and definitely not the heat, but there it was - the energy of a community crowd. It seems as though the crowd was much more crowded though. Strollers with bundled up toddlers, dogs on festive leashes, grandparents and parents dressed warmly against the cold. (Cold in Victoria means not quite freezing, but there was no wind and no rain. Only a light cloud layer made it not too bad.) But the tubas! My curiosity was struck by how brass musical instruments

could be played outdoors in even Victoria cold. The orchestra and their instruments were wisely sheltered under a tented roof along with several fireplaces placed intermittently within the tent. The Christmas tuba orchestra is composed of *amateur and professional musicians from area schools, UVic, the Armed Forces and local groups. I learned that the youngest musicians participating were three 11 year olds. Scattered among the shining brass tubas, musicians were dressed in winter jackets, Santa Claus hats, red and green scarves and gloves, all led by a conductor also suitably garbed against the weather. 

It wasn’t just teenagers taking photos with cell phones. Men and women held their phones up for video footage of this most interesting orchestra. Other audience members with incredibly expensive looking cameras moved purposefully through the crowd snapping photos as they went. The concert was also being live streamed and there are many Tuba Christmas concerts to be found on Youtube.

This was my first, and very enjoyable, Tuba Christmas concert, a fund raiser for the Times Colonist Christmas Fund which assists families and individuals in need. I popped my donation in the decorated donation tuba at the front of the orchestra before finding a relatively convenient space to stand on the floor of Market Square. Audience members decorated the two balconies and the staircases that led to the main floor. Other of these festive Tuba Christmas events are held in many other cities throughout North America. An extensive list is being compiled at www.tubachristmas.com/

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! 

What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. 

What if Christmas…perhaps….means a little bit more!”

~ Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas

*see the photo indicating the orchestra members.