Candlelight: Christmas Classics

Candlelight: Christmas Classics comes to The Merchants House of Glasgow on Saturday 12 December, with two performances on the night: one at 6:15pm and another at 8:30pm. It's a tribute to Christmas classics, and the whole thing is performed by Belford Strings, a string quartet. The set runs for about an hour, and as the name suggests, the room is lit by candlelight rather than stage lights, so the music is the main thing on display.

The programme pulls from a few different traditions. You'll hear timeless carols alongside more recent festive favourites, and it's a fairly broad mix: Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy sits next to O Holy Night, Feliz Navidad, Last Christmas and All I Want for Christmas Is You. It's a tribute, not a performance by the original artists, so the quartet puts their own take on these songs rather than following the recordings exactly.

The Merchants House of Glasgow is a Victorian building on West George Street, designed by John Burnet and opened in 1874. The concert takes place in the Grand Hall, which holds around 200 people and features ornate ceilings, stained-glass windows and a sweeping marble staircase. It's right in the city centre, so it's an easy spot to get to if you're coming from elsewhere in town.

Tickets are £24 per show, and with the two different times, you can pick the one that fits your evening best. The whole thing lasts about an hour, so it's a relatively short night out rather than a full evening's commitment.