For many of Eileen Ivers’ fans, the fiddler’s Christmas shows are now a traditional part of the holiday season. “I’ll tell you, I don’t take it lightly,” she said this week. “Just for a couple of hours to be in a theater and feel the emotions that this time of year brings. I like to stay in the lobby and hang out until the last person leaves, it makes my heart full.”

This will be her 22nd annual seasonal tour (she even did them online during shutdown), hitting Cary Hall in Lexington Sunday night. And the title “Joyful Christmas’ is no accident. “I feel that you only have so much time to have the privilege of being onstage, and maybe you can touch people in a deeper, emotional way. There’s a positive message in Christmas, and we all need to hear it. And I don’t like to bang people over the head with the faith part of it, but that’s also part of who I am.”

Fans can expect plenty of dazzling fretwork and her usual eclectic approach to Irish music. “There may be a few 17th century tunes, and a few things that people are less familiar with. Like all things Irish, which I love deeply, there is a contemplative spiritual part of it, which I approach through some reflections that I speak onstage. And there is the innate joy of the season, which will be reflected through some dance tunes and some rocking Christmas carols — some of which we’ll do in a more Cajun-y way, which reflects what Irish music has become since it came to America.”

Ivers was part of “Riverdance” in its heyday, but that’s not where she learned to be so flamboyant onstage. She credits that to Daryl Hall & John Oates, with whom she toured as a bandmember in the early ‘90s. “I was such a shy kid playing music, I hated to speak onstage and even introduce songs. It comes from having Irish parents, that whole thing of ‘Be humble and don’t make a show of yourself.’ I was 25 when I played with Hall & Oates, and it was really eye-opening, a good Ph.D. in rock touring.” She was invited by their bassist and bandleader, after guesting on the largely acoustic album “Change of Season.”

“I was onstage the whole night, playing the ‘Rich Girl’ lines with me and a cello. They had an 11 piece band, the best of the best, but what I really remember is how the saxophone player broke down the fourth wall when he soloed. That’s when it hit me as an impressionable budding performer, that you can’t just sit in a chair and put your head down, and I took that into the ‘Riverdance’ experience. The band I’ve had for many years now can share that kind of fire — We can say ‘Let’s improvise, guys, and take this out to where we are tonight.”

She carries the rock flavor into her shows via her love of devices; she plays fiddle through a wah-wah and the Christmas show features a looped version of a carol or two. “Oh, I just can’t help myself. I’m a big fan of the instrument and it can be rhythm, lead, countermelody, bassline — You can do all that with the magic of looping.”

She says she likes spending time with traditional Irish musicians and more progressive ones. “There are some great younger players out there who are set into their own, very regional style — that’s who they are and what they love. And then there are some with bigger ears. At the end of the day I feel that you can always infuse Irish music with other genres, as long as you represent it respectfully.”