Trans-Siberian Orchestra was born with the song “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24),” recorded by the progressive metal act Savatage for its 1995 album “Dead Winter Dead.”

Paul O’Neill, who wrote the song and started TSO, died in 2017, but the drummer on that recording, Jeff Plate, will be behind the kit when TSO returns to the Covelli Centre for two shows on Sunday.

This year’s tour features an all-new production of “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve,” the 1999 television special and DVD that mixed seasonal favorites and TSO originals.

“We’ve done this show several times before,” Plate said during a telephone interview last month. “It just works great with the audience. The band loves performing it, and it runs all the time on a number of different networks throughout the holiday season.”

While the music might be familiar, the look of the TSO show is ever changing. O’Neill always looked for the latest in pyrotechnics and technology to add to the production, and it’s a tradition that’s continued. Plate is one of those people who can get a sneak peak of what’s in store, but at this point he likes to wait until rehearsals start and be surprised.

“I stand in the venue on the floor and go, ‘Wow, they’ve done it again,'” Plate said. “There’s always something different, whether it’s lighting, whether it’s videos, a little different set up on the stage, etc., etc. It’s difficult to reinvent this thing every year, but it’s in respect to the fans that come to see us every year. Paul wanted to make sure that they were going to have something new. They were putting money down for a ticket. He wanted to give them a new show every year. And, you know, the team of people that Paul assembled years ago, they do a fantastic job of doing that.”

The second half of the concert will feature greatest hits from the other TSO Christmas albums and selections from “Beethoven’s Last Night,” which was released 25 years ago.

“That was the first non-seasonal album that Paul O’Neill wrote and recorded for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, so we’re gonna put together a cool medley, you know, to honor that album,” Plate said.

Another TSO tradition also returns this tour. After the show, concertgoers will be able to get autographs from the performers. It was discontinued when TSO resumed touring after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think it was just a matter of, ‘Do we feel comfortable? Do we feel safe? Do we think that we’re beyond this enough that we can bring the line back?’ Then the answer is yes,” Plate said.

“This was something that helped us really connect to our audience. Paul always loved the idea of talking to the fans and meeting people face to face. It’s going to be good to see some familiar faces coming back through. There’s going to be plenty of new ones, I’m sure. But this was part of the connection this band made with the audiences, and this is why they just keep coming back every year.”

Plate understandably has a fondness for the signing line. It’s where he met his wife. Thanks to significant radio airplay on WNCX-FM in Cleveland, northeast Ohio was one of the first markets to embrace the TSO concept, and the band made frequent appearances in the region. Plate’s future wife was a frequent concertgoer and signing line participant.

“She used to come to all these shows. ‘Yeah, here comes that cute brunette again. Oh, she’s at this show too.’ As time went on, we struck up a conversation, one thing led to another, and I brought her back here to New York and made her my wife.”

He loves coming back to northeast Ohio with her, but the football-loving Plate wasn’t converted into a Cleveland Browns fan by marriage.

“I’m in upstate New York, so I’m a Buffalo Bills fan,” he said. “But what’s worse — watching your team lose four Super Bowls in a row or just watching your team trip over themselves every year? I don’t know which is worse.”

After a tour where he’ll play more than 30 cities (and in most cases play two shows) in less than 50 days, Plate said he’ll take some time off to celebrate the holidays with family in January and watch playoff football. He also has more than 20 drum students taking private lessons.

But Savatage played its first shows together in nearly a decade earlier this year with dates in South America and Europe, and he said there will be more Savatage shows in 2026. However, U.S. fans will need a passport if they want to see the band.

“There is talk about (a U.S. tour) all of the time,” Plate said. “We have to be realistic about the logistics part of it, the financial part of it. We have such a larger fan base overseas, we can afford to travel with a proper crew, with proper production, with extra production. We went to Europe last year, and South America with extra lighting. We had video content. We really made a show of what we were doing, just trying to bring all this music up to the next level.

“There’s always the question without Paul being here, we always wonder, ‘How would Paul approach this? What would Paul want us to be doing right now?’ Where would he want to be taking this at this time?’ We’ve all kind of concluded that with Pau, you know, bigger is better. He loved the grandiose spectacle presentation. We in Savatage are the same way. Luckily, our fan base has really stood tried and true through all these years. They came out in force in Europe and it was fantastic.

“As far as America, I think in time something’s gonna come along that really makes sense for us to do. And we will definitely get back out here in the States, because, as we’ve been doing these TSO shows every year, we do play at least one Savatage song every every show. So the audience has been exposed to this for many, many years. I would dare say our fan base is probably bigger than it’s ever been in the States. So once things line up properly, we’ll get back out there and do it. But trust me, we’re all looking forward to it.”

If you go …

WHAT: Trans-Siberian Orchestra

WHEN: 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Covelli Centre, 229 E. Front St., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $63 to $123 and are available at the Southwoods Health box office and through Ticketmaster.