Puffy parkas, ski hats and earwarmers were the uniform of the day when the Vineyard Haven Band performed the first winter concert of its nearly 150-year year history Saturday afternoon on Main street in Vineyard Haven.

“You look different,” director and clarinetist Julie Schilling told the group. “Oh yeah — it’s all the clothing you have on.”

Vineyard Haven Band warmed up Main street Vineyard Haven Saturday with its first-ever winter concert. — Alison L. Mead

Decked in a Santa hat, ornament earrings and bright red eyeglass frames, alto saxophonist Cathy Plesz even wore gloves, with handwarmers inside them, to keep her fingers warm while playing.

“I practiced playing with my gloves this week,” she said with a smile.

With about half a dozen players from the Martha’s Vineyard High School music program reinforcing the ranks, the winter band was 23 members strong as it performed for 45 minutes on the plaza outside Bernie’s and Bobby B’s.

“It’s nice to have all you guys, young, old and in between,” said Ms. Schilling, who in summer conducts a much larger Vineyard Haven Band of 35 to 50 musicians with an age range of half a century and more.

Bright sunshine moderated Saturday’s frigid air temperatures for band fans and passers-by, who lined up along the streetside railing or against the plaza’s west-facing wall to enjoy the holiday tunes. A couple of families with small children perched on the metal benches in the plaza.

Passing motorists slowed their cars, curious faces peering from the driver’s-side windows, and honked their horns in applause. A solitary fish crow, high in a tree across the street, appeared to be either cheering or competing as it kazooed along.

In summertime, the band rehearses weekly at the Sailing Camp Park in Oak Bluffs. There was no time or place to rehearse for Saturday’s concert, so Ms. Schilling relied on simple, three-part arrangements for harmony, melody and bass which she sent to the musicians in advance.

Dressed for the weather, Phoebe and John Eagan take in the show. — Alison L. Mead

Among the Christmas classics — Joy to the World, Up on the Housetop, We Three Kings and other favorites — the band also performed an arrangement of the traditional Hanukkah song, S’Vivon.

While not complex, the settings offered plenty of opportunities for grand unisons and stirring harmonies from the brass and woodwinds. Nineteen-year-old drummer Brahmin Thurber, who has been playing with the summer band for seven years, kept the beat.

Ms. Schilling, a longtime music teacher in Island schools before her recent retirement, invited several of her former students to join the holiday band. Tenth-grade Danielle Middleton, 15, who plays alto saxophone, said she volunteered because she used to enjoy playing on Main street as a student at the West Tisbury School.

Now Ms. Middleton says she’d like to join the Vineyard Haven Band this summer. That’s music to the ears of band members like keyboardist Jeri Larson, who chairs the publicity effort to recruit more members and celebrate the band’s 150th anniversary next summer.

Saturday’s concert was initially planned as a one-off to begin the sesquicentennial celebration, but the turnout and event were so successful that Ms. Larson is already looking ahead to next winter.

“This is a new tradition,” she said.