It’s Christmas—time to forget the cares of the workaday world and celebrate unfettered, wintertime joy among friends and family.  It’s a time filled with Christmas bounty, and the hush of reverence before the most blessed season of the year. 

Along the snowcapped Wasatch front, wrapped in a glistening winter, it’s difficult to imagine anything that could quell the spirit of the Holiday Season.  For some, though, the cheer brought on by cozy wintertime is lessened—by need.   We’re no strangers to images of want at Christmastime: thoughts of a new child with no bed—slung in a manger instead; thoughts of poor shepherds gathered in a stable, call our attention away from the jingling of Christmas change and back toward a chance to be our best at Christmas—in simple service to those who need it. 

Enter “The Gift,” a very special musical experience brought to the stage by your favorite performers. Let acclaimed musicians Ryan Shupe, Peter Breinholt, and Sam Payne take you down a wintry road, by turns fat with toe-tapping excitement and solemn Christmas hush.  It’s a magical evening—the stuff of which Christmas traditions are made. Coming this season to five Wasatch front venues (one near you), “The Gift” tour waits to warm your heart with memories of hometown Christmases past and hope for the bright years to come. 

How does it all happen?  National star Ryan Shupe (after bringing the rousing “Dream Big” to audiences around the country), leads a charge of huge acoustic newgrass, firing off quirky treatments of Holiday favorites that will leave audiences grinning, from the tall to the small.  Regional contemporary folk favorite Peter Breinholt (whose recent release “All the Color Green” has set the bar for contemporary acoustic recordings) brings his characteristic sincerity to heartfelt performances of Christmas classics both original and traditional.  Winding through the music like a trail of winter flowers, award-winning songwriter and storyteller Sam Payne spins a web of the sorts of songs and stories that for years have been stranding people in their driveways, helpless before their radio dials.  Behind it all is Shupe’s remarkable Rubberband—the elfish tailors of the Christmas cheer that runs rampant through the evening.  That’s the lineup.  

But much more than a concert, “The Gift” is an opportunity for you, too.  In partnership with the Utah Food Bank and the Road Home, Pete, Ryan, Sam, and the gang encourage you to bring along non-perishable food items, and unwrapped gifts (much use could be made of blankets and warm clothing) to your evening at the concert hall.  Donated items will be gathered carefully up by the band and delivered to their friends at the Utah Food Bank and the Road Home, just in time to provide some Christmas Bounty to those who could most use it, courtesy of you and your family.   

Join us for “The Gift,” an evening that will capture the heart of a hometown holiday.  After all, these are fathers, husbands, and former children on stage—having thrown thousands of snowballs, eaten dozens of fruitcakes, downed countless glasses of eggnog, and awakened wide-eyed and reverent before hundreds of shining Christmas mornings between them.   The instruments are tuned.  The guys are ready.  Merry Christmas.