We’ve all been talking about home a lot lately. What is home, and if we lose ours, can we replace it with another?

How do we make sure everyone, from veterans to newcomers, find a place to call their own? The 24-hour news cycle makes it easy to forget the trees for the forest, even when they’re bedecked with lights as they will be in just a few weeks’ time. But the Austin Public Schools Music Department is extending a simple invitation that may help us remember how to feel at home.

“Christmas at Home,” a variety show that will feature three unique lineups on Dec. 18-19, is a chance for everyone to experience the breadth and depth of Austin’s musical talent.

Ellis choir director Maria Wilson, said that when she originally met with AHS band director Brad Mariska and I.J. Holton Intermediate School and fifth-grade choir director Nikky Tolde, they wanted to develop a show that would help fund the current music programs in Austin as well as continue the holiday variety tradition.

But the show doesn’t stop at showcasing our schools’ stellar music programs; many talented community members (Jamie and Jenna Braaten, Jesse Smith, Alice Holst and Gordie Handeland, and even the APS music faculty) will join them. “This show is not just about our students but a collective partnership between the music department and the community of Austin,” Wilson said. “Our community is unique in the way that we love the arts and have so many talented artists apart from our students. Why not celebrate that uniqueness while giving back to the music programs at Austin Public Schools?”

While the high school students have performed at the Paramount Theatre before, the stage will be a new experience for many Ellis, Holton, and elementary students. I had to ask though: with Austin High’s newly renovated Knowlton Auditorium looking and sounding so spectacular, why choose the Paramount?

“The Paramount has a look and feel that can’t be replicated,” said Wilson. “Just like the talent of our community and students.”

Maybe it feels a little like home.

Christmas at Home performances are 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 18 and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 19. Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students. VIP dinner plus show tickets are also available for Friday’s show (proceeds from the dinner will benefit the Hormel Historic Home and the AACA), and are $30 for adults and $15 for kids 18 and under.