Pine branches in hoarfrost late fall day
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Stories for the Season
NPR voices, past and present, tell stories of the season.
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Fred Vigeant
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Pine branches in hoarfrost late fall day
Christmas is a time of traditions, and over the years, NPR has created a few traditions of its own. Wistfulness, joy, doubt, hope, all the emotions we feel at this time of year, all summoned up in memorable stories from the NPR broadcast archives.
NPR has pulled a variety of stories from Christmas past into hour long specials which will air in place of Smart Talk Friday December 6, 13 and 20 and then as part of our Christmas Specials schedule over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (schedule coming soon).
December 6 – Tinsel Tales
- Dad ‘n’ Sam (Jay Allison)
- Homeless Christmas (Lee Stringer)
- Christmas Morning, 1949 (Sylvia Seymour/Paul Auster)
- Low-Glamour Christmas Party (Bailey White)
- Doing it in the Closet (John McIlwraith)
- Christopher (Jay O’Callahan)
- Ode to Christmas (Chuck Kramer)
- Santaland Diaries (David Sedaris)
- Modern Day Joseph and Mary (Scott Simon)
- John Henry Faulk’s Christmas Story (John Henry Faulk)
December 13 – Tinsel Tales 2
- Santa Claus, Private Eye (Duck’s Breath Mystery Theatre of San Francisco)
- Pass The Fois Gras: Christmas Menu Hard To Digest (Firoozeh Dumas)
- A ‘Silent Night’ That Brought Healing (Steve Banko)
- The Christmas Club (Bill Harley)
- All I Wanted For Christmas (NPR staffers)
- Christmas Gift Records (The Ban-Smo Label)
- The Night Before Christmas, Latin Style (Read by NPR’s Claudio Sanchez)
- The Designated Celebrator (Melinda Shoaf)
- Christmas Truce (Historian Douglas Brinkley)
- Wolf Christmas (Daniel Pinkwater)
December 20 – Tinsel Tales 3
- December’s Soundtrack (Amy Dickinson)
- Christmas With UPS (Loree Gold)
- Merry Stressmas: It’s That Time Of The Year (Kevin Kling)
- Appreciating The Ugliness Of The Christmas Tree (Ken Harbaugh)
- Stealing Hemlock (Bailey White)
- Christmas Lights Tour (Bill Harley)
- Christmas With The Totenbergs (Nina Totenberg)
- The Gift Of The Magi (O. Henry, read by NPR’s Audie Cornish)
- Christmas For Cows (Baxter Black)
- Christmas Pudding (Marialisa Calta)
- Caroling In The Cold (Julie Zickefoose)
- Christmas Magic (Joseph C. Phillips)
- Grinch’s True End (John Moe)
Tinsel Tales 4 will broadcast the week of December 23 along with a collection of Christmas and Hanukkah specials.
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
