Photo by caroline.angelo

Christmas cheer is inevitable this time of year, but when it comes to holiday music, the range of choices can be daunting. Each year, we pick out what we think will be the most interesting concerts, the ones that will (hopefully) not make you roll your eyes. If you want something more traditional — your carol medleys, your Messiah, your Nutcracker — it’s all after the jump.

NOT THE SAME OLD CHRISTMAS:
>> Members of the Washington Bach Consort will present one of Bach’s cantatas for Christmas Day, Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63, for its Noontime Cantata series at Church of the Epiphany (December 1, 12:10 p.m.). It’s free!

>> Celebrate the end of the Haydn Anniversary Year with the concert for St. Nicholas’s Day by Chantry and Modern Musick at St. Mary, Mother of God (December 5, 8 p.m.). Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai is combined with medieval and Renaissance works devoted to St. Nicholas.

>> The Folger Consort often hosts the best Christmas concert in the area, and this year the theme is German: In Dulci Jubilo: A German Christmas, presented with the Cantate Chamber Singers at the Folger Shakespeare Library (December 11 to 20, various times).

>> A trip to Baltimore may be worth the chance to experience a performance of Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night, a chance work for boombox parade, hosted by the Mobtown Modern series. Show up at Penn Station (December 12, 7 p.m.) to take part in (or just follow) the musical happening, followed by a concert of new music at Metro Gallery.