How to Score Holiday Pops Tickets at Boston’s Symphony Hall

I have been a fan of the Boston Pops Orchestra since I was a kid. My love affair with the Pops probably began with the annual Christmas specials that would air on local Public Broadcasting Station WGBH-TV Channel 2 on television.

If not the Holiday Pops programs, the annual Independence Day concert live from the Hatch Memorial Shell on the Esplanade on Boston's Charles River each Fourth of July made a believer out of me.

My dad was a classical music buff, and although he preferred traditional classical masterpieces to the light classical and popular pieces performed by the Pops, he viewed the Pops as a door opener or gateway to the classical composers.

The Boston Pops Orchestra, an offshoot of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was founded in 1885 and was comprised primarily of musicians from the BSO.

In my lifetime, there have only been three musical directors of the Boston Pops Orchestra: Arthur Fiedler, John Williams and Keith Lockhart. Each has left his own indelible mark on the orchestra.

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I have seen the Boston Pops Orchestra perform live several times, most recently this summer at Tanglewood in the Berkshires under the direction of the 90-year-old Williams.

In another Tanglewood performance I was fortunate enough to see some 30 years ago, the Pops backed up the legendary Tony Bennett.

In the late 1980s, I saw the Boston Pops perform under the stars at the Champlain Valley Fairgrounds in Essex Junction, Vermont and enjoyed the Holiday Pops at the Providence Civic Center in the early 1990s.

On the Fourth of July in 2000, my family squished into the Esplanade with thousands of others to celebrate Independence Day.

I still have not seen the Boston Pops Orchestra perform at Symphony Hall in Boston. To see a Holiday Pops Concert at Symphony Hall is a bucket list item.

There are only a handful of Holiday Pops Concert performances at Symphony Hall, and tickets go quickly. I usually think of it when it is too late since they go on sale relatively early.

The Boston Pops have a schedule and ticket information for this year's Holiday Pops concerts on their website. There are morning, afternoon and evening shows throughout December. The program runs approximately two hours, including intermission.

Tickets will be available on September 12, 2023 at 10 a.m.