The 10 Best Classical Guitar Christmas Music Books For All Levels

classical guitar christmas music

Christmas songs are ideal for classical guitar players to learn to play. Christma is the perfect season to learn some new pieces and to increase your performance level. People love listening to  the peaceful tones of classical guitar Christmas music during the holiday season.               

Here are 10 music books with great guitar arrangements of popular Christmas music. If you’re just starting out on the guitar or are looking to expand your repertoire, then these titles are excellent additions to your musical bookshelf.  

Here Are The Top 10 Best Guitar Christmas Music Books  

1. Christmas Music For Easy Classical Guitar

This book is great for beginners as well as experienced guitar players who are looking to learn some new seasonal arrangements. It contains the most popular Christmas songs, including:

  • Angels We Have Heard on High
  • Away in a Manger
  • Carol of the Bells
  • Deck the Halls
  • The First Noel
  • Gabriel’s Message
  • God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
  • Good King Wenceslas
  • Hark, the Herald Angels Sing
  • Here We Come a Wassailing
  • The Holly and the Ivy
  • I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In
  • Jingle Bells
  • Jolly Old St. Nicholas
  • Joy to the World
  • O Christmas Tree
  • O Come, All Ye Faithful
  • O Come, O Come Emmanuel
  • O Little Town of Bethlehem
  • Silent Night
  • Up on the Housetop
  • We Three Kings
  • We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Some of these songs are a bit more difficult to play than others, but they’re all at a reasonably easy level, so there’s something for everyone in this book to learn to play.

2. Christmas Carols For Easy Classical Guitar

This book is great if you’re looking to play some lighter arrangements. It contains 22 of  the most popular Christmas songs, which include:

  • Angels We Have Heard On High
  • Ave Maria
  • Away In A Manger
  • Deck The Halls
  • The First Noel
  • God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
  • Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
  • It Came Upon The Midnight Clear
  • Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
  • Jingle Bells
  • Joy To The World
  • O Christmas Tree
  • O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)
  • O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
  • O Holy Night
  • O Little Town Of Bethlehem
  • Once In Royal David’s City
  • Silent Night
  • The Twelve Days Of Christmas
  • We, Three Kings Of Orient, Are
  • We Wish You A Merry Christmas
  • What Child Is This?

3. Christmas Carols: Easy Guitar Songs

This is a great book if you want to play some simpler arrangements of Christmas songs on the guitar. It contains popular carols, including:

  • Angels from the Realms of Glory
  • Angels We Have Heard On High
  • As with Gladness Men of Old
  • Auld Lang Syne
  • Away in a Manger
  • Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella
  • Christ Was Born On Christmas Day
  • Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus 
  • Coventry Carol
  • Deck The Halls
  • Ding Dong! Merrily on High!
  • Go Tell It on the Mountain
  • God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
  • Good King Wenceslas
  • Hark! The Herald Angel Sings

4. Fingerstyle Christmas Guitar

This book contains some really great classic guitar Christmas music arrangements for a finger-picking style. If you’re looking to expand your repertoire, then this is the perfect book for you. It has both easy and intermediate level arrangements of Christmas songs. 

The easier songs in this book include:

  • It Came Upon The Midnight Clear
  • The First Noel
  • O Come, Little Children
  • Silent Night

The intermediate songs include:

  • Go Tell It On The Mountain
  • Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent
  • Joy To The World
  • O Little Town Of Bethlehem

The more challenging ones include:

  • Winter Wonderland
  • Angels We Have Heard On High
  • Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
  • In Dulci Jubilo

5. Hymns for Fingerstyle Guitar

This book has 25 well-known Christian hymns that are set to fingerstyle guitar in standard tuning. Most of these songs are easy to play, but there is a full index in the back that you can use if needed to gauge song difficulty. Some of the more challenging arrangements include:

  • All Things Bright And Beautiful 
  • Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
  • It Is Well With My Soul
  • Jesus Loves Me 
  • Just As I Am 
  • What A Friend We Have In Jesus 

6. The Classical Guitar Christmas Collection

This book contains some of your favorite Christmas songs, all arranged for classical guitar. You can play these on both nylon and steel-string guitars with the same fingerings. The easiest song in this collection is Away In A Manger (The Crib).

Other songs include:

  • Angels We Have Heard on High
  • Auld Lang Syne
  • Ave Maria
  • Away In A Manger
  • Canon In D
  • The First Noel
  • God Rest Ye Merry
  • Gentlemen
  • Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
  • I Saw Three Ships
  • Joy To The World
  • O Christmas Tree
  • O Holy Night
  • Silent Night
  • What Child Is This?

7. The Christmas Guitar Collection

If you’re looking for a great book filled with some easy guitar arrangements of Christmas songs, then check out this one from Hal Leonard.  It has some of the most well-known holiday songs, including: 

  • Blue Christmas
  • Feliz Navidad
  • Frosty The Snow Man
  • Happy Holiday
  • Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
  • A Holly Jolly Christmas
  • (There’s No Place Like) Home For The Holidays
  • I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
  • I’ll Be Home For Christmas
  • It’s Beginning To Look Like Christmas
  • Jingle Bell Rock
  • A Marshmallow World
  • The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
  • My Favorite Things
  • Santa Baby

8. Classical Guitar Christmas Collection: Guitar Solo

Hal Leonard’s book has a great selection of easy Christmas guitar solos. There’s something for everyone in this book, including:

  • Angels We Have Heard On High
  • Deck The Halls With Boughs Of Holly
  • O Christmas Tree, I Saw Three Ships
  • Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
  • Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
  • Joy To The World
  • O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)
  • O Holy Night
  • Silent Night 

9. Christmas Carols for Advanced Acoustic Guitar

In this book, you’ll find some really great arrangements of Christmas carols, all set to fingerstyle guitar. The only downside to it is that these selections are very difficult for beginners or even intermediate players. If you’re an advanced player, be sure to check this one out.

Songs include:

  • The First Noel
  • We Wish You A Merry Christmas
  • The Twelve Days Of Christmas
  • Hark the Herald Angels Sing
  • Coventry Carol
  • Deck The Hall
  • Good King Wenceslas
  • Jingle Bells
  • God Rest You Merry
  • Gentlemen
  • Away In A Manger
  • O ChristmasTree
  • We Three Kings
  • The Holly And The Ivy
  • Silent Night

10. Classical Guitar Christmas Sheet Music

This book has some great arrangements that are arranged for classical guitar. It has 30 songs in total, all in standard tuning. Most of the songs are at an easy level with some being intermediate difficulty. 

Some of the songs include:

  • Jingle Bells
  • Jolly Old St.Nicholas
  • Joy To The world
  • March
  • O Christmas Tree
  • O Come All Ye Faithful
  • O Holy Night
  • O Little Town Of Bethlehem
  • Silent Night

Understanding Classical Guitar Music

People are often confused about what classical guitar music is. While it’s true that most of the popular pieces played by guitarists were originally written for other instruments, there are many great composers who wrote specifically for the instrument. 

The easiest way to think of “classical” music on a guitar is any piece where you can hear a distinct melody and harmony being played. This kind of music can be found in many other genres, too.

Traditional classical music dates back hundreds of years to a time when composers were expected to write complicated music with more than one part. The guitar was more commonly used as a rhythm instrument rather than as a solo piece, and so there are some pieces that work well on the classical guitar even though they were originally written for other instruments like harpsichord or flute.

Most of the music we hear today is designed to be played by singers accompanied by piano (or something similar). Most of the songs we play on guitar were written for singers, so they tend to have a very vocal quality. The lyrics are important in these pieces because without them there’s no way to express the same ideas as the composer intended.

Classic Guitar Christmas Music

There are a lot of Christmas songs that were originally written for other instruments, but many can sound great when played on the guitar. These songs are normally familiar to people, and so the guitar arrangements are heartwarming and enjoyable.

Holiday music is great for beginner guitar players because it’s generally fairly simple compared to other styles of music. It’s also much more forgiving; you can make mistakes as long as they’re not blatantly obvious. The main thing about holiday music is that it should always sound festive and joyful, no matter what the skill level of the player.

Christmas carols are probably some of the best pieces for guitar players to play because they often have very simple melodies with lots of repetition. You can learn them quickly even if you don’t read music well or don’t know all of the chord progressions yet. The more complex bits of music are often in the accompaniment, so if you know a few chords then you can pick these songs up fairly quickly.

Here Come The Holidays: Be Sure To Check Out The 10 Best Classical Guitar Christmas Music Books

If you want to learn the art of classical guitar, then these 10 best classical guitar Christmas music books are a great place for beginners and more advanced players to find great material. You can get your hands on any one of these books at an affordable price, so it will be easy to find wonderful seasonal songs that will suit your needs. 

Pick up a copy of one of these helpful instructional books today and discover why thousands of people have made us their first stop for quality music instruction materials. They will be a huge help when learning how to play wonderful classic guitar Christmas music.   

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