Christmas may be the Big Kahuna of American holy days… but it wasn’t always so. For many centuries, it was a time of drunken rowdiness, when the poor would aggressively demand food and money from the rich. Little surprise, then, that the Puritans banned Christmas altogether. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1820s that the holiday was re-invented as the peaceful, family-oriented, and yes, consumeristic ritual we celebrate today.

BackStory ’s year-end special takes on the fascinating history of the “holiday season” in America. Beginning with contemporary debates over the proper role of religion in the public square, the History Guys move backwards in time, searching for the roots of the holidays we celebrate today. Has Christmas grown more or less religious? When did gifts enter the picture? Was Hanukkah always as important to American Jews as it is today? What does the history of holidays have to do with the history of the American economy? These are just a few of the questions on the table as the History Guys explore the history of the winter holidays.

Highlights Include:

• Historian Stephen Nissenbaum (The Battle for Christmas ) describes how in the 1820s, Christmas changed from a raucous street fest into a domesticated, gift-centered holiday.

• Fox News Radio host John Gibson explains why he thinks there's a "war on Christmas."

• Rabbi Laura Baum (ourjewishcommunity.org) explains how the Hanukkah story came into being, and why telling kids the truth about its origins doesn’t diminish the holiday.

• Tyrone Jones talks about what it’s like to be a Santa Claus who doesn’t look like the Norman Rockwell prototype.

• BackStory listeners phone in with their questions about the history of the holiday season.

Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices

Holiday cheer and holiday weird, a mix of lotsa holiday stories, found-sound, and sprinkling of sampled songs:

A home-recording of a "Christmas Gathering 1947" (4:08 excerpt), on an unlabeled 7" Wilcox Gay Recordio Disc, was found by Bob Purse. The complete recording is posted at the 365 Days Project, "Christmas Gathering 1947" (6:32 mp3): [audio:http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/DP/2003/12/365-Days-Project-12-25-christmas-gathering-1947.mp3]

John Beltran remixes Bing Crosby "The First Noel" (5:02), on the compilation Holiday Chill - The Christmas Remixes.

"Dad and Sam" (4:43) is Jay Allison's story of father and brotherhood, from his series Life Stories.

Simon & Garfunkel mixed "Silent Night/7 0'Clock News" (2:05) back in 1996, on their album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme.

Every year at the Mall of America, you can hear "Arthur Jackson: Singing Salvation Army Bellringer" (4:54), a reformed drug addict now serving the Lord. The piece was produced by Todd Melby (KFAI Listening Lounge | Twin Cities Daily Planet | 2 below zero).

"Carrie Conley" (2:06) talks about raising six children as a single mom, and rounding up Christmas dinner and presents for everyone. Her son, Jerry Johnson, interviewed her for the StoryCorps project.

Every year, from 1963-1969, the Beatles sent their Fan Club members a Christmas message on flexi-disk record. The "Beatles Fan Club Christmas" (excerpts 6:41) messages were collected on The Beatles Christmas Album. Several sites have them posted online; there's hi-fi (320kbps) mp3s at TheBeatleSource) and The Internet Beatles Album.

"Christmas Kids" (4:25) tell the stories, myths and rumours of the Holidays, from a 2nd-graders POV: Mrs. Beasley's class at Emerson School in Bozeman, Montana, recorded in 1986.

At an orphanage in South Africa, some "Zulu Kids" (2:14) belted out a few songs for producer Jake Warga.

The late, great sound-recordist, Tony Schwartz, takes us on an audio tour of "Christmas in New York" (6:04) in the late 1950s. For more TonyS: Library of Congress | WNYC | WFMU | TonySchwartz.org | HV from NPR | Amazon.

HV's Barrett Golding tours his hometown of Bozeman looking for "The T in Xmas" (2:55): A toy-shop owner displays her wares, a Jewish man recounts the story of Hannukah, a Salvation Army captain tells the history of bell-ringing, and the Sweet Adelaides choir offer a-capella carols.

Seattle's Captain Smartypants and the Seattle Men's Chorus yodel and line-dance their country-style Brokeback Dreidel, aka, "Kislev Cowboys" (excerpt 2:06) by Eric Lane Barnes. Recorded live by Tom Speer of the Seattle Channel, the video is posted onYouTube.

George W. Bush speeches are captured and placed in the extraordinary rendition program of mashup artisan Rx, who wishes you a "Happy RXmas & Whole Lotta Love" (Bush vs. Led Zep- excerpt 2:31). And we end with a Mahalia Jackson "Silent Night" (excerpt 2:41), remixed by King Kooba (bassist Charlie Tate and producer Matt Harris, aka DJ Shuff). The song is floating around the net free.

Right Between the Ears serves up an hour of sketch comedy for the holiday season in a live performance at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, KS.  The RBTE Yuletide show includes a spoof of the classic It's a Wonderful Life, updated for our economically-challenged times, plus commercials for Jiffy Pants ("the popcorn you make in your pants") and Mournful Christmas, featuring Gregorian monk-ified Christmas carols.  Also, the hosts of Pimp My Turkey outfit their Christmas turkey with a 500 horsepower police interceptor engine (and a cup holder), the Broadway Boys sings over-the-top Christmas songs and Sarah Palin hosts her first Christmas special.

Right Between the Ears is a four-time winner of the Gold Medal as Best Comedy Show at the New York Festivals, and is broadcast every week on Laugh USA, Sirius-XM 96 and on the stations of Kansas Public Radio. 

"A Christmas Carol: Redux” retells the Charles Dickens classic in the present day, giving it a satirical comedic spin. Amidst a crumbling economy, skyrocketing unemployment, and mass protests on Wall Street, cheapskate Scrooge (the 1%) refuses to share his wealth with those less fortunate (the 99%).  Join our narrator, Russell Thomas, as he recounts this classic Christmas tale with visits by The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future (all while he battles his own ghosts due to a recent divorce).

Jon Smith – Russell Thomas (narrator)

Charles Ketchabaw – Ron (audio engineer)

Rob Fulton – Scrooge

Aviva Armour- Ostroff – Ghost of Christmas Present

Lisa Marie DiLiberto - Ghost of Christmas Past

Eric Toth – Ghost of Christmas Future

Samantha Espie – Belle

Andre Arruda – Tiny Tim

Evanne Ketchabaw – Susan Scrooge

Nesh Abadjian – Jacob Marley

Mark De Angelis – Bob Crachit

Written by: Andrew De Angelis, Mark De Angelis, Charles Ketchabaw

Produced and directed by: Ready Set Panic (panicsociety.com)

Mixed and Edited by: Charles Ketchabaw

Everyone knows Julia Child loved to cook, but not everyone knows she loved to read. Long ago she started work on a series of specials that are only just now being completed and aired -- stories about food and a little cooking, but mostly about people. "A Christmas Carol is a lovely story to read over the holidays," she says, "because it has a happy ending." Peter Donat, a star of her favorite TV show, "Murder She Wrote," brings the story to life -- with sounds and music that stimulate the theatre of the mind. Next Julia introduces her old friend, M.F.K. Fisher, who was, in the words of the poet W.H. Auden, "the best prose-writer in America." The recording took place in the author's tiny house set in a meadow, with cows poking their noses to the window. Julia paints a funny, spontaneous portrait of her friend -- especially her "wicked" streak. The story Mary Frances Kennedy reads is "I Was Really Very Hungry," about a meal served off-season in a famous Burgundian restaurant, the passionate chef slaving in the kitchen, the passionate waitress bringing course after course to the only diner in the building, M.F.K. Fisher, whose pleasure shifts to fear as she finds herself "a victim of these stranded gourmets." 

While part of a series of programs covering the Christmas Season, "The Days After Christmas" may also stand on its own as an informational and entertaining look at the season that continues after December 25th.

Included in this edition of "Kaleidoscope" are readings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Three Kings" and Fulton Oursler's "A String of Blue Beads." 

*See "Timing and Cues" for suggested edits, if any, for call letters, date/series info, etc.

*This program originated on analog tape using non-digital source material. Some tape hiss and record pops should be expected.

Sure, Christmas in the 1950s was the stomping ground for Rudolph and Frosty. But underneath the marshmallow world of perfect conformity was another take on holiday cheer that involved rock n roll, space travel, my baby left me blues, and good old Cold War paranoia. Welcome to the Alt 50s Christmas, edgier than Perry Como, more corrupt than a rigged quiz show...something to sing while you dig your fallout shelter!

A Cowboy Christmas celebrates the holiday with memories, music, and poetry of people who live and work in the isolation of America's outback. Some of the stories and songs are family traditions passed down through the generations while others are new works inspired by Christmas on the lonely range. This program features poets Baxter Black, Waddie Mitchell, and Native American singer and comedian Vincent Craig.

"The Joe Bev Holiday Treat" is a joyful and surprising self-contained, magazine one-hour compilation of Christmas themed stories--some true, some fictional--hosted by veteran public radio producer and Ellenville Journal reporter Joe Bevilacqua.

Give your listeners a Christmas present this year--a rest from the bad news of the world--with this happy holiday treat. The perfect show to run Christmas Eve!

The stories included in the hour are:

"Sleepy Santa" "The Christmas I Saved Macy's" "Sherlock Holmes Creepy Christmas in Scotland" "A Rockabilly Christmas" "Willoughby and the Professor Spend Christmas in the Middle East."

If you are looking for a short Christmas piece, check out THE CHRISTMAS I SAVED MACY'S (04:18) as a stand-lone at: http://www.prx.org/pieces/22168 or A Rockabilly Christmas at: http://www.prx.org/pieces/22410.

If you would like to broadcast my half-hour Christmas Special, go to: THE MISADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES CHRISTMAS SPECIAL: "Holmes Creepy Christmas" (28:57) http://www.prx.org/pieces/21906.

Here's a press release you can use to promote these shows:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Lorie Kellogg 845-647-9475 press@waterlogg.com

Three Year Old Boy Saves Macy's Public Radio Veteran Recalls Stamping Out a Fire in 1964

This holiday season is a special one for Joe Bevilacqua (or Joe Bev as he often known). The veteran, award-winning writer, cartoonist, radio producer and actor has not one, but FOUR different Christmas Specials being broadcast on public radio stations across the country, over the next few days.

In one of them, "The Christmas I Saved Macy's," Bevilacqua recalls the time he stamped out a fire at Bambergers Department Store in Newark, New Jersey in 1964 when he was three years. The story was published in the December-January issue of Orange Magazine, reprinted in December 6 issue of The Ellenville Journal, and Joe Bevilacqua will be reading it on Public Radio International's "Here and Now," XM Satellite Radio and public radio stations nationwide, now through December 25.

Bamberger's department store was founded in 1893 by Louis Bamberger,and the building, which was erected in 1912, had a big clock on it. Unlike the sprawling malls of today, Bamberger's took up the entire building and sold everything from ladies underwear to model homes. In 1929, Bamberger's was purchased by R.H. Macy Co. of New York City, but it wasn't until 1986 that the name was changed to Macy?s when they went national. Today, there are Macy?s across the country. "And you can thank me for it," says Bevilacqua. "The same year The Beatles invaded America, I saved Bamberger's, so if it were not for me, the Macy's we know today may not have existed."

Bevilacqua's mother, Joan, brought her some to downtown Newark to shop for Christmas and so he could see his father, Joe, Sr., who was a policeman, directing traffic at the intersection of Market and Halsey Streets, where Bamberger's was located. After a visit with Santa, his mother took the boy into Bamberger's ladies lounge.

Bevilacqua recalls, "It was a handsome place with real wood paneling, glass ashtrays on ornate brass stands and leather chairs in which sat seven or eight Jackie Kennedy look-alikes, wearing pillbox hats, half-jackets and white gloves. They had all kicked off their spiked healed shoes and were rubbing their stockinged feet in between puffs of their cigarettes." A woman screamed and Bevilacqua saw flames coming out of one of the ashtray stands. The woman kicked over the stand and jumped up onto her leather chair, and the carpet was on fire. The woman screamed and jumped up. "Somebody put it out!" urged one woman. "I can't! I don?t have my shoes on!" replied another. "Me either!" added a third. The last suggested, "Get that kid to do it! He?s got shoes on!" Bevilacqua says he "quickly stamped out the fire" and the women lifted him up and "hugged and kissed" him. What does the 35-year public radio veteran remember most about that day? "The woman who had suggested my act of heroism picked me up, kissed my cheek and smiled. Her makeup smelled just like a delicious cotton candy.

Bevilacqua has edited and written several books, including Daws Butler: Characters Actor, the authorized biography of the voice of Yogi Bear. A frequent contributor to National Public Radio, He has won many awards, including a Silver Reel from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters for A Guy Named Joe Bevilacqua. His radio documentary Lady Bird Johnson: Legacy of a First Lady won best radio documentary at the 2001 New York Festivals. Most recently, Bevilacqua won a New York Festivals for his 2006 All Things Considered tribute to cartoon legend Joe Barbera. Bevilacqua has also written, directed and acting in hundreds of radio dramas for NPR and XM Satellite Radio. In addition, he writes three to five articles per week for The Ellenville Journal in Ellenville, NY. He also contributed a number of articles, essays and cartoons to the premiere issue of Orange Magazine. ?Joe Bev? and his wife and co-creator, Lorie Kellogg, live in their uniquely cartoonish home in the woods of Napanoch, NY, with their three dogs, George, Gracie and Zasu, and their two cats, Offica Pup and Krazy Kat. You can hear over 30 hours of his audio work, much of it for National Public Radio, at: www.joebev.com.

Here is a fun, different Christmas special for your listeners...

This hour special is available for broadcast as a one-hour show (in three segments) or as 12 5 1/2 minute modules, for flexible programming.

The Cartoon Carnival Christmas Party includes rare and classic holiday themed cartoon audio and music:

Stan Freberg, Daws Butler, Don Messick, and Marian Richmond in "Sleepy Santa," "The Christmas That Almost Never Was," and "Christmas Dragnet," plus music from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" by Vince Guarldi, "Seigh Ride" by Leroy Anderson, Alvin and the Chipmunks sing "The Chipmunk Song," Burl Ives sings "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas," Thurl Ravenscroft sings "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," and Sammy Davis Jr. sings "It's Christmas Time All Over the World."

The program is produced and hosted by Joe Bevilacqua (Joe Bev.) -- as his childhood creations Willoughby and the Professor.

This special is based on Joe Bev's high rated radio show currently airing on Shokus Internet Radio.

MORE Joe Bev. Christmas specials can be found here:

http://www.prx.org/series/22441-joe-bevilacqua-christmas-programming

JOE BEVILACQUA (JOE BEV) presents the first radio cartoon show ever - CARTOON CARNIVAL!

As the protege of cartoon voice legend Daws Butler (Yogi Bear), the veteran award-winning broadcaster (NPR, XM Radio) is no stranger to the cartoon world. Joe Bev even co-authored his mentor's authorized biography, "Daws Butler, Characters Actor", available at BearManorMedia.Com.

MORE INFO:

http://www.pr-inside.com/joe-bevilacqua-joe-bev-returns-to-r1429414.htm

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cartoon-Carnival-Radio-Show/115944560605

http://www.joebev.com/cartooncarnival.htm

http://www.shokusradio.com/


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Available as a weekly series and/or stand-alone holiday specials, CARTOON CARNIVAL is a huge HIT with PDs and audiences at the following stations:

Weekly series airing:

1) ONLINE DAILY at 3 PM (PT) Shokus Internet Radio
http://www.shokusradio.com

2) Omni Media Networks:
SUNDAYS at 6 PM (PT) all channels(Classic Car Gold, the Stream, the Beyond Channel, and Hound Dog) and AM 1610 FM 89.3, Albany, OR
MONDAYS at 2 PM and 1 PM and TUESDAYS at 6 AM (PT) Golden Hours Radio Network
THURSDAYS, 3 PM (PT) The Powerful World of Sound
ONLINE: http://www.omnimedianetworks.org/listen.htm

3) FRIDAYS at 6 PM (PT) on KITC, 106.5 FM, Gilchrist, OR: http://kitcfm.com

4) Saturday at 9 AM (CT) on North Texas Radio for the Blind (NTRB)
Reading & Radio Resource, Dallas, TX
www.readingresource.org

5) SATURDAYS at 8 PM (CT) on Wisconsin Public Radio WGTD HD3:
http://www.wgtd.org

6) SATURDAYS at 8 AM (ET) on The 1920s Network, WHRO HD-3, Norfolk Va Beach
http://www.the1920snetwork.com

Stations airing specials:

7) KREV-LP 104.7 FM Estes Park, CO

8) KEOS-FM, 89.1, College Station/Bryan, TX.

"Go Tell It on the Mountain" was born in the rich and indomitable oral culture of African slaves in the American south. A hundred years later it became a rallying cry for the civil rights struggle of the 1960's. And now, it's a perennial favourite at Christmas concerts and church services across North America.

The spiritual "Go Tell It on the Mountain" has come to mean many things depending on the time and place in which it is sung. Freedom anthem, hymn of faith, a simple song of Christmas. As is the case with most spirituals, its music and lyrics cannot be attributed to any one person. African-American composer John Wesley Work is credited with formally adapting the song and including it in a songbook in 1907. But the versions of "Go Tell It on the Mountain" are as varied and distinctive as the people performing it. The lyrics have been adapted and re-adapted and personalized countless times. And it is always, at its heart, a celebration.

YMP's Audio Revolution tackles the touchy topic of Christmas and Consumerism with hosts Sienna Sanchez and Conor Cole. This segment include Earthcare International/Youth Allies participants' audio cascade about waste and recycling, a piece on Walmart's use of sweatshops and additional unsavory labor practices, and finally, YMP's Taylor Ramzel's Taoist approach to dealing with holiday stress.

B-Side's Tamara Keith and Erika Kelly visit Union Square in San Francisco and find it filled with holiday cheer - and a couple of hundred intoxicated people dressed as Santa. Stories include: Tamara Keith on making latkes the right way. Ethan Lindsey on chopping down his own Christmas tree. Erika Kelly on making her son a wooden toy. Scott Gurian on his father's attempt to play Santa and what went wrong. Rene Gutel on her husband's Christmas present and an ethical dilema.

A narrated audio-rich trip through the holy land exploring the modern state of Christmas.  Between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, between Easter and Christmas, there is a modern and yet ancient wall.  In my travels I explore the origins of the conflict, all the way back to Abraham:

"...The name “Isaac” means “He Laughs”  His laughter and blood becomes David’s...A lineage dripping with laughter, but blood is mixed with tears.  Ishmael, the name, means “He Weeps”  The brother of Isaac, the brother of Laughter, weeps to this day...

...In Jerusalem, religions compete to see which can get you up the earliest. Call to prayers from loud speakers in minarets try to beat the roosters. Then come wake-up bells from churches.  Not even an Atheist can over-sleep in the holy land. "

Video:

http://hearingvoices.com/news/2009/12/holy-land-tour/
or
http://vimeo.com/8037836

This is based on a true christmas story I heard many years ago. I recreate it as best I can with music, ambient sound and a little humor at the end.

When Brooklyn born Jonathan Groubert followed his Bosnian in laws up a mountain to take part in a Serbian Orthodox tradition, he just wanted to please his father in law. But when he got there, he discovered the true meaning of Christmas. This piece will also appear in EuroQuest 200551.

The Swedes like to think of themselves as changing with the times, except when it comes to holiday traditions. On Christmas Eve, for over 50 years, the entire country has gathered around their televisions to watch a one hour cartoon starring Donald Duck. Producer Susan Gray spoke with Ann Hildreth from the American Swedish Institute and Lena Norman from the University of Minnesota to learn why Donald Duck holds a special place in their hearts.

A holiday radio drama and parody about a sleuth who investigates Santa's disappearance, featuring many famous cameos including Mickey Mouse and the Soul Train. The original Christmas Carol is Scrooge's story, this is a new Christmas classic for all to enjoy. Co-written and co-produced by students at Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day High School.

This month, dance troupes all across America prepare one the most beloved ballets in the country: The Nutcracker Ballet. At Baltimore School for the Arts, the young dancers do the same. But this isn’t any ordinary high school performance. BSA is one of the top arts high schools in the nation. The students here very well may one day be principal dancers in troupes across the country. Producer Louisa Jonas goes behind the scenes as the talented teens get ready for this holiday favorite.

Last year I took the time to interview a handful of my friends and family about their holiday memories to cut into CD for a mass Christmas present. As I listened to the accounts of holiday memories and disasters, two interviews in particular struck me. It was the contrast between my Aunt’s recollection of Christmas with her family and my mother’s. You see, my mom is from a family of 8 children in rural western Pennsylvania, outside of Pittsburgh. Linda was the oldest child, 5 years older than my mom. So she remembers the first Christmases of a new family, before it ballooned into 8 children and before tragedy struck. It was a pleasant Christmas and the descrption is almost magical.

Fast forward more than a decade. My mom was just ten when her mother died of cancer, which made Linda 15. Christmases were different without a mother figure and ever since my grandfather became an alcoholic after her death. Linda wasn’t around too many years after that, but my mother was. She remembers Christmases a little differently. She remembers her father becoming absolutely drunk and forcing the large family to travel miles in the snow on the way to midnight mass, stumbling and freezing the whole way through the woods.

These two stories show a house divided by two recollections of Christmas from two very different times. One the reflection of the care that goes into a new family’s preparation for Christmas and another the reflection of the same family’s fall from those lovely memories. The fact that these are the Christmases that each sibling chooses to remember is a reflection of their age difference and experience in the family. Though it should be noted that according to each one’s story, the other should have been able to remember at least one Christmas as described by the other sister.

Maybe it’s just also a reflection of the fact that memory and it’s preservation is less a matter of what you remember, but what you choose to remember.

From the Saviour's conception to offerings of gold, frankenstein and myrrh, six year old Erin Magill of Moretown, Vermont tells her version of the Christmas story, with help from her creche figures.

Ira Glass's "Wait, tell me that again" interview style is in high relief as he tries to get to the bottom of how an angel named Clarence prevents George Bailey from jumping in the river by tricking him into jumping in the river. In Act II of our program Ira discusses things with Henry Potter. A reference to David Sedaris sneering at New Year's Eve from Paris concludes things.

Script:
I walked downtown today and felt like crying. It's not even December, but the decorations are up. Phones to ears in agony, no one is  smiling. Crazy people, ghosts, prowl downtown…ignored because they're crazy, or crazy because they're ignored. No one notices me,  I am unremarkable in the shared cold.

I blast a song in my ears, the ipod clicking up with the volume, the  lyrics: "this is the dance that brings the dead to the living."

Commodity fetish, Karl Marx, all around. Happiness is behind the thick windows.

A girl, thin, attractive, no face, only the small of her back exposed as she squats in a department store window, her flesh the same color of the mannequins she is bowing to, who she is dressing, or is it the other way around?

Movie, just to escape, escape by immersion. Johnny Depp with large blade greets me, threatens me for noticing too much.

"What is the What" is in paperback and audiotape in the bookstore below, Sudanese refugee story, free gift-wrapping.

I see a ghostly reflection in the window: a cancer patient, bald, unhappy, aware that time is short, but it is only me. A clicking, random, rapid, arcade game in the theatre lobby. Man fires with pink gun, a final volley, letting it all out before his quarters expire. 
To kill.

A disheveled babbling woman walking past Santa's village, it's started to rain, it's always started to rain. She talks to and past me. She yells. I yell. No one notices, I click-up the volume, “This is the dance that brings the dead to the living”
[END]

Song: Cloud Cult

The Global Guru is a new weekly public radio show that seeks to celebrate global culture. Engaging and rich in sound, the 2:45 interstitial enriches our collective understanding of the vastness of human experience by uncovering the world one small mystery at a time. Presenting station is WAMU in Washington, DC and sponsored by American University in DC. Some of our favorite past shows include: How do Cambodians predict the harvest each year? How did Tanzania become the capitol of barbershops? How and why does Thailand categorize food? What is Iceland’s most feared culinary delight? How do you track a Tasmanian devil? 

Last Christmas, my father decided to send presents to needy children living in the Bronx, but he made the mistake of putting his cell number on the Fedex box. At first, he started getting voicemail messages politely thanking him for the gifts, but the calls became more angry and demanding as time went on.

For many of us who have grown up celebrating Christmas, we know the holiday routine. But for hundreds of thousands of new immigrants to the United States, Christmas this year will be spent away from the familiarity of their home country. It?s their first taste of the holiday, U.S.-style. Youth Radio?s Cassandra Gonzalez spent some time with Juliana, a 21-year old who just five months ago crossed the border from Mexico with her young son. The two women compared notes on the holiday, from both sides of the border.

KUOW's Amanda Wilde talks with singer Margaret Whiting about how she recorded "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Johnny Mercer.

The story, myths and rumours of Christmas, as understood (and misunderstood) by Mrs. Beasley's second-graders at Emerson School in Bozeman, Montana. In their uncertainty we hear the inherent strangeness of the holiday, as they mesh into one: Jesus, Santa, mangers, and buying presents "for your step-dad, if you have one." Note: this piece is part of The Plan- Carol http://prx.org/pieces/7595

In this light-hearted and thoughtful piece, Jonathan Malesic describes how his ideas about celebrating Christmas were changed by a snowball fight after midnight mass in Buffalo, New York. This is an original piece.

On December 22, 2003 I spent two hours in the Zombie Hut, a bar on Smith Street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, asking two questions: "What is the worst gift you've ever received" and "What is your favorite Christmas Carol?" Things that are not revealed in the two minutes of the piece: I spill a beer on one of the people I interviewed; someone asks if I'm there for NBC. I am not.

Parents, take heed. Kids, close your ears. Teenagers from Chicago remember the exact moment they found out that Santa wasn't real. Curie Youth Radio is a writing and radio production class at Curie High School on Chicago's Southwest side. Here, students create their own stories: fresh takes on everything from snowball fights to gang warfare. They see their stories as a way for teenagers in one Chicago high school to reach out to the rest of the world.

A sonic impression of accentuated actualities revolving around my extended family gathering around the dining room table to listen to my grandfather's Thanksgiving day speech.