Westminster Presbyterian Church – December 14, 2025
Julie brought this one up first and mentioned that they didn’t have the sign up at the church. When it showed up as a Facebook memory from 2 years ago I googled it and got the details. It just so happened to fit into a weekend with no other shows booked. Amazing! We decided to go early and have a final meal at Shaker’s before Julie moves away and the restaurant is torn down to make way for apartments. Julie invited her friend Joe to join us. Joe is 87 and was a bit concerned about getting in and out of the church, but it turned out to be no problem. Traffic being what it was, I was about 10 minutes late, but we still had plenty of time to eat and make our way to the church. Parking is easy. The church has a large lot. I dropped Joe and Julie at the front and quickly found a space.
Westminster Presbyterian is modeled after Westminster Abbey and is beautiful. It’s on the north end of Lake very near Altadena. As we learned just before intermission when the senior pastor addressed us, they are currently sharing their space with a few churches that were impacted by the Eaton fire. While this concert is free, it’s also a fundraiser and donations were gratefully accepted. This year’s host was John C. Reilly and the brass ensemble was accompanied by the Riverside City College Chamber Singers, with a few organ pieces played by Mallory Haney Loo. The show opened with a few standard Christmas tunes and progressed into some more obscure pieces, a few jazzy pieces, some originals, spirituals, A Visit From St. Nicholas narrated by John C. Reilly, and concluded with a sing-along. It was a really nice mix. Each piece was humorously introduced by John C. Reilly as well. And for A Visit From St. Nicholas/’Twas The Night Before Christmas, there was added humor by the band as “not even a mouse” was followed by the Disney opening title music and “visions of sugarplums” was followed by Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies, etc. The big pipe organ sounds great too. Mallory Haney Loo is not quite as accomplished as Paul Jacobs, but it doesn’t really matter who’s playing it when they hit the low notes and the entire space is reverberating.
This is an annual concert I would recommend to anyone hoping for a little Christmas spirit. And go ahead and make a donation – it’s for a good cause!