Christmas concerts and church music in Sofia, 2026

By the ULTIMATE Sofia Editorial Team

Christmas at Bulgaria Hall

Bulgaria Hall, at 1 Aksakov Street, is the home of the Sofia Philharmonic, and its Christmas is choral. On Wednesday 23 December at 7pm the National Philharmonic Choir under Donka Miteva sings Vivaldi’s Gloria in D major and Saint-Saëns’s Oratorio de Noël. Tickets are €10 to €30.

On Christmas morning, Friday 25 December at 11am, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra under Gerrit Priessnitz plays Christmas with Milla Mihova: Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks, a soprano aria from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Praetorius’s Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen for brass, Adam’s Cantique de Noël, the Pantomime from Hänsel und Gretel, the Bach–Gounod Ave Maria and, to close, Silent Night. Tickets are €25 to €55.

Our advice: the Christmas morning concert ends at about 12.30pm, in good time for a long Christmas lunch nearby.

Sofia Philharmonic: Christmas Eve →   Sofia Philharmonic: Christmas with Milla Mihova →

Choirs and orchestras at the National Palace of Culture

The National Palace of Culture’s New Year’s Music Festival brings several Christmas evenings. On Monday 14 December at 6.30pm the Vienna Schönbrunn Orchestra gives its Christmas Golden Gala Concert in Hall 1. On Thursday 17 December at 7pm the Sofia Boys’ Choir joins the Balkan Folk Dance Ensemble of the Tsar Boris III-1928 cultural centre for Christmas Braid, a programme of carols and folk dance, in Hall 11.

On Friday 18 December at 8pm the singer MIRO gives a Christmas concert in Hall 1. Tickets for all three are sold through the palace’s own pages; prices were not listed when we checked.

Our advice: Christmas Braid is the most Bulgarian of the season’s concerts, with boys’ voices and costumed dancers on one stage.

NDK: Vienna Schönbrunn Orchestra Christmas gala →   NDK: Christmas Braid with the Sofia Boys’ Choir →   NDK: MIRO Christmas concert →

Christmas concerts for children

The Philharmonic’s family concerts start early: Christmas Stories with the Magic Quartet, with the Philharmonica String Quartet and the Children’s Philharmonic Choir, is on Sunday 6 December at 11am in Bulgaria Chamber Hall, and Jingle Bells!, sung by the Children’s Philharmonic Choir under Milena Yatsino, on Saturday 19 December at 11.30am in the same hall.

On Sunday 20 December at 5pm the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra plays Christmas in Children’s Movies in the main hall of Bulgaria Hall, conducted by Viliana Valtcheva (tickets €30). On Saturday 26 December at 4pm, in Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture, Home Alone is screened with John Williams’s score played live by a symphony orchestra and the Talashamche children’s choir.

Sofia Philharmonic: Christmas Stories →   Sofia Philharmonic: Jingle Bells! →   Sofia Philharmonic: Christmas in Children’s Movies →   NDK: Home Alone in Concert →

Christmas in the cathedrals

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on 25 December, and its great Christmas liturgy is sung in the patriarchal Cathedral of St Alexander Nevsky. The 2026 service times were not on an official page we could read on 12 November. The same was true of St Joseph, Sofia’s Catholic cathedral.

Our advice: both cathedrals are working churches, open to visitors who come quietly; dress modestly, check the times at the door in the week before Christmas, and arrive early for the Christmas Eve and Christmas morning services.

Booking and getting there

Christmas Day 2026 is a Friday, so the busiest concert weekend is 19 and 20 December. Tickets for Bulgaria Hall are sold through Eventim and for the National Palace of Culture through the links on its event pages; book early for the oratorio and the Boys’ Choir.

Our advice: see our guide to Christmas in Sofia for the markets and lights, and our New Year’s Eve guide for the galas that follow.

Christmas in Sofia →   New Year’s Eve 2026 in Sofia →

Questions and answers