Holiday hijinks with the Hallé orchestra

I know it's practically summer, but hear me out: I am a Christmas music FIEND. Ever since I was small, I’ve cracked out the festive tunes from approximately 1 November each year – thanks to a much-loved ‘That’s Christmas’ CD back in the 90s and now a carefully-curated Spotify playlist.

Busy work day? Christmas songs. Stuck in a traffic jam? Christmas songs. Many have judged me, and many will continue to, but I don’t care because I have Mariah Carey, Paul McCartney and Slade to comfort me.

That’s why I ran (/skipped merrily) to the Arts Centre box office to grab tickets for the Hallé Orchestra’s Christmas concert at the end of last year. For those not in the know, the Hallé is an English symphony orchestra that was founded way back in 1858, by pianist and conductor Charles Hallé. They performed all over the country at concerts to celebrate the Christmas season – and Warwick Arts Centre was their midweek stop-off on 13 December.

Food at Benugo

The show was at 7.30pm, so I met up with my mom at 6pm to head over to BenugoLink opens in a new window, the Arts Centre’s restaurant. First impressions? Big fan of the green decor. I’m a new home-owner and I have since decided that if I had to paint my living room any shade, it would be Benugo green. Second impressions? Fantastic pizza. You get a lot for your money and the service was very speedy – a great start to the evening.

Once we were finished at Benugo, we headed over to Butterworth Hall to get settled in for the night. I’d bought myself a large bag of Fruit Pastilles from the snack-stand outside the hall, because I am incapable of sitting down for an event without some sort of sweet treat to keep me company, so we munched while we waited – and then out came the Hallé Orchestra!

Watching the concert

The show was brilliant. Some of the songs we heard were well-known Christmas classics, while others were slightly more niche – but we enjoyed both equally thanks to the conductor, who gave us a little snippet of trivia about each song before it was played. One thing I really like about the Arts Centre is that you’re able to experience new or different things in a welcoming and relaxed environment – at a show like this, it doesn’t matter if you can’t tell your Tchaikovsky from your Prokofiev (and thank goodness, frankly, because I cannot). The experience is what counts.

Another thing I really like about the Arts Centre? Staff at Warwick can use a special 2-4-1 offer for lots of events and cinema showings – and that’s exactly what we did! For this particular show, we managed to save a very impressive £29 on our tickets overall.

If you live locally (or even if you don't!), Warwick Arts Centre is a lovely place to spend some time - weeknight or weekend, couple, solo visitor, or family. Here’s my advice: book your tickets in advance, use your staff discount, and gleefully spend your savings on some highly-recommended Benugo pizza…