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Tickets are now on sale for A Hometown Christmas, Southern Union State Community College’s (SUSCC) annual Christmas concert. The show will run from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. in the Brazeal Auditorium at the Wadley campus.

A Christmas concert has been a yearly tradition since the Southern Union Singers held the first one in 1972. Since then, it has expanded to include the entire performing arts department. This year over 40 student musicians and dancers will be featured, along with a small technical crew.

The show is split into two sections, with the first centering on this year’s theme of a hometown Christmas through some of the season’s most iconic songs. After an intermission, the second section of the show is a musical telling of the biblical story of Christmas. For the children in the audience, there will be a visit from Santa Claus as well.

Along with the 7 p.m. shows, the department has two morning shows exclusively for local schools to bring their juniors and seniors to recruit the next group of SUSCC performers.

“We use [the morning shows] to announce to the students that you can do this if you want to audition for a scholarship…We would love to have all of you to come and audition,” said Stephen Spratlin, the Associate Dean of Instruction.

The concert was one of the many traditions put on hold due to COVID-19. It was gradually brought back under social distancing guidelines, allowing around 70 people to be in the 400-seat auditorium for shows. Last year was the first time since the pandemic’s start that the theater was back to full capacity.

However, the morning shows did not sell out last year.

The schools seem to be more excited about the opportunity this year. According to Spratlin, on the day they announced the morning shows the auditorium was fully booked before lunch.

The tickets to the nighttime showings are still open to the public and should be purchased in advance. They can be purchased on the Southern Union website or by calling their Business Office at 256-395-2211, ext 5113.

“We view this as an opportunity to usher in the holiday season to get everyone in the mood for the Christmas spirit. And we’re just fortunate in this area to have these talented students that can come together and work to produce a show such as this,” Spratlin said.