I need sheet music. With Christmas songs. Like, right now.

December 25, 2014 1:31 AM

I imagined this would be really easy. Google, find, pay, download. Turns out it's not. Looking for Christmas sheet music in pdf format, available for download immediately. Needs not be free BUT I already paid for a subscription to 8notes, and the login information still hasn't arrived (after an hour), and the customer service does not operate today, so I am wary of subscribing to more sites and encountering a similar problem. Can you help?

I was able to find "easy piano" versions but I would prefer

- intermediate/advanced versions
- for the piano

Bonus points
- lyrics sheets
- a whole book of most popular Christmas songs available for download
- Amazon would be a plus as I'm already a customer

posted by M. to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

Best answer: Freebies:
Holidaysheetmusic.net
Reddit Ultimate Piano Sheet Music list
posted by AnnaRat at 1:54 AM on December 25, 2014 [3 favorites]

Google Books has a lot of carol book options if you search for "Christmas carols" and check the "free ebook" in the search settings.

This one looks especially promising: A Shorter Collection of Christmas Carols

Also Modern Christmas Carols

Christmas Carols and Hymns for School and Choir (1910)

To download PDF versions, just click the little red "Free Ebook" rectangle at the top-left of the page.
posted by Bardolph at 3:30 AM on December 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: There's also Cantorion, as well as Hymns and Carols of Christmas. The beauty of the second link is it has historical annotations to all the songs (if you're into that sort of thing). The first will have both easy and advanced piano, as well as SATB arrangements of Christmas music.

You don't mention what you need the music for, so it's hard to gauge whether hymns and carols are going to be sufficient or whether you need more modern stuff like The Christmas Song.
posted by LN at 5:09 AM on December 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

If time isn't an issue, and you're looking for one book that contains most Christmas music (both traditional carols as well as modern secular songs), may I recommend something like this book?
posted by LN at 5:13 AM on December 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Amazon does have songbooks in digital form, but they won't be PDF; they'll be Kindle format, so I don't know that that will help you.

Try searching Scribd -- a search on "christmas music," for example, turns up quite a few documents and collections.
posted by alyxstarr at 5:54 AM on December 25, 2014

Google Christmas sheet music and click on images. It's not the most ethical way to get music but it will get you started. Another option would be to ask your aunt if you can borrow her hymnal. It's been my experience that everyone has at least one aunt who has a hymnal.
posted by myselfasme at 5:59 AM on December 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

MusicNotes.com is a paid site but from what my brother tells me you just pay per song, and it shouldn't take hours.
posted by missriss89 at 6:43 AM on December 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

The IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library returns over 1,700 results for a search of "christmas." I didn't attempt to narrow it down for piano or more popular music.
posted by 1367 at 10:15 AM on December 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

An additional find: IMSLP/Petrucci has a Category page for Carols, in case you have particular songs in mind.
posted by 1367 at 10:20 AM on December 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The Christmas Real Book
posted by modofo at 1:40 PM on December 25, 2014

Response by poster: Thank you everyone so so much. Very good resources!

I do not live in an English-speaking country so borrowing my aunt's hymnal wasn't an option, but myselfasme's answer made me laugh :)

And despite all my resolutions, I ended up spending more money, by subscribing to Scribd. The flesh is weak :)

You guys are great!
posted by M. at 3:26 AM on December 26, 2014