Christmas videos to put you in a holiday mood

Here are some of our favorite Christmas videos sure to put you in a holiday mood, including renditions of the Hallelujah Chorus and Santa Claus is coming to town.

Hallelujah Chorus by 5th Graders in Quinhagak, Alaska

This charming version of the Hallelujah Chorus by the village of Quinhagak in Alaska took the students 10 hours to shoot all the scenes (on a weekend nonetheless!!). Hallelujah!

Quinhagak is located 400 miles west of Anchorage, Alaska on the coast of Kuskokwim Bay, which is part of the Bering Sea. The only way into and out of Quinhagak is by plane, there are no roads connecting the village with the state road system. The village is comprised mainly of Yup’ik Eskimos, who still speak the Yup’ik language.

Thirty years ago, “Eskimo” was the commonly used term for arctic peoples around the globe. Today these peoples in Canada and Greenland are usually designated Inuit, while in Alaska the term Eskimo is still used to distinguish this group from other Native populations.

The everyday subsistence life, culture and language of the Eskimos is bound by their unbreakable ties with the sea. The sea mammals (walruses, whales and seals), fish and birds, water currents, ice floes, winds, fog, storms, and tides—-all of this is Eskimo life.

Jimmy Fallon ‘Santa Claus Is Coming To Town’

This is a truly fun rendition of Jimmy Fallon with pop boy band One Direction and Grammy-winning Tonight Show band The Roots performing “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” on toy instruments.

Flash mob Hallelujah Chorus at Welland, Ontario mall

On November 13, 2010, shoppers got a Christmas music surprise while enjoying their lunch at a shopping mall in Welland, Ontario when over 100 singers joined in a flash mob performance of the Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.

The Hallelujah Chorus is part of the oratorio Messiah composed by George Frideric Handel nearly 300 years ago. It is Handel’s best-known piece. Originally a modest vocal and instrumental piece, it was adapted after his death for performance with large orchestras and choirs. The singers in Messiah do not assume dramatic roles; there is no single, dominant narrative voice.

Welland is a city in southern Ontario, Canada, located in the center of Niagara Peninsula, east of Niagara Falls, about 1.5 hours from Toronto and 45 minutes from Buffalo, New York.