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Keeping the CBSO annual Christmas concerts fresh is a challenge for Simon Halsey. Christopher Morley reports.

City of Birmingham Symphony chorus director Simon Halsey has been in charge of the CBSO's popular Christmas concerts for almost a quarter of a century, and during that time he believes he has conducted some 90-odd performances.

But how does he set about programming these events and ensuring that they keep coming up fresh year after year? Are there any permanent fixtures?

Sounding remarkably fresh and enthusiastic amid a life spent commuting between Birmingham, Berlin (where he is director of the Berlin Radio Chorus, collaborating with Sir Simon Rattle's Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra), and other points of the European compass, Halsey takes me through the process.

"Yes, there must be a certain amount of audience participation with the carols and so on, and there are one or two old favourites which must end part one, and O Come, All Ye Faithful must more or less end the concert.

"Then we have to choose a few other carols, and I try not to do the same ones every year, and if at all possible to stretch the bounds – anything not to go pedestrianly round the same ones every time.

"The problem is, there are a whole lot of carols I'd like to do but which I keep being assured have long been forgotten."

Increasingly over the years the CBSO has commissioned new works from composers. "In the last few years we've had John Joubert write us something. It seems crazy to have one of the great doyens of Christmas carols and Christmas music ever written living in Birmingham and not to use him.

"I always try to make sure the first half tells the actual Christmas story, because I do think it's terribly important it's not just an American-style 'happy holiday' concert," continues Halsey.

"And the second half is lighter. The next thing is to go to the Youth Choruses and see what they want to do, and particularly the Juniors.

"And then what the orchestra and the adults do depends on what's left over. So, for example, if the kids are doing a piece about shepherds, then the rest of us don't need to do anything about shepherds, if they're dealing with the three kings, then the rest of us don't need to, and so on.

"I make sure that everyone had enough but not too much to do, and that the orchestra plays at least two things that stretch it, including something that it won't have played before.

"And I try to make sure that it's not too long, and that it's not too bitty, and I try to make sure there's some music by real composers.

"It's quite a juggling thing."

Simon Halsey describes how CBSO bass trombonist Alwyn Green comes up with orchestrations for pieces the children want to do where no orchestrations exist, and adds how, in a recent Christmas programme, 13 of the 23 pieces were either getting a first performance or getting a new orchestration.

"But the thing was completely traditional, and there wasn't anything to frighten any horses anywhere."

He also tells me how CBSO PR consultant (and Chorus member) Mike Dernie and the communications team "increasingly think up a wheeze for each year, whether it's a composers' competition or someone conducting, or whatever it is."

Recent "wheezes" have included a talented young student, Tracy Goodyear (now a Symphony Hall steward as she works her way through a degree course at Birmingham University), winning the opportunity to conduct the CBSO in Leroy Anderson's fabulous Sleigh Ride (she told me she found it "an unforgettable experience"), and a competition for the composition of a Christmas carol, promoted jointly with BBC TV's Midlands Today.

"Also the nature of the programme depends slightly on who the presenter is. If we know who the presenter is well in advance, and we know their particular skills – for example, on several occasions Brian Kay has been to do them, and he can sing as well as talk, so quite often he might sing something.

"Recently we've tended to have actors who haven't been able to sing, so just occasionally you need to get a soloist in."

Prospects of the presenter being able to do double duty have diminished somewhat this year as boy soprano turned baritone Aled Jones has had to withdraw due to illness. He has been replaced by TV presenter and Atlantic rower Ben Fogle.

"It's funny, it's quite hard work and it takes me several days to get it sorted," concludes the genial Halsey.

The five Christmas Crackers concerts presented by the CBSO in the next few festive days will benefit several local charities.

CBSO Marketing assistant Amy Poyser says that successive concerts between today and Saturday will include collections for the charities Edward's Trust, Childline, St Basil's, Acorns Children's Hospice and Cure Leukaemia.

But this is not the sum of the CBSO's seasonal activities. Tomorrow lunchtime the Berkley Salon Ensemble, joined by senior members of the City of Birmingham Symphony Youth Chorus, invites you to a 2006 Christmas Party, and on January 5, Barry Wordsworth, music director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, invites us to a CBSO Viennese New Year, with Claire Rutter the soprano soloist.

The CBSO's Christmas Crackers concerts are at Symphony Hall tonight (7.30pm), tomorrow (3pm and 7.30pm) and Saturday (3pm and 7.30pm).

The Berkley Salon Ensemble and CBS Youth Chorus 2006 Christmas Party is held tomorrow at the CBSO Centre, Berkley Street (1.10pm, details on 0121 767 4050).

The CBSO's Viennese New Year celebration is held at Symphony Hall on January 5 (7.30pm).

All Symphony Hall details on 0121 780 3333.