Hector Berlioz, L’Enfance du Christ.
This work has been a popular Christmas piece almost ever since Berlioz wrote it–it was one of the few outright successes he got to enjoy during his life–even though it’s not about the birth of Christ but about what happened after, when Joseph and Mary and the child were fleeing Herod. Still, the work’s gentle nature–seemingly at odds with Berlioz’s unfair reputation for bombast–appeals greatly this time of year.
This is the music that generated THIS post: https://www.rogerogreen.com/2021/01/16/the-inverse-pedal-point-in-music/