1pm: Candles Burning Brightly
A delightful hour for everyone to celebrate the Jewish Festival of Lights! Lots of music from Jewish communities around the world, plus a hilarious lesson on how to prepare a classic Chanukah dish, and a timeless and touching holiday story that brings light into every home.

9am: A Choral Christmas with Stile Antico
Celebrate Christmas with the sound of soaring voices. Stile Antico, the award-winning choir from London, pays a visit to St. Paul’s Church on Harvard Square for a concert of radiant sacred music for the Christmas season by the most acclaimed composers of the renaissance. Hear the group’s luminous blend of voices sing the intricately woven music of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd.

Noon: An Afro Blue Christmas
Here’s a very special holiday concert with Howard University’s premiere vocal ensemble Afro Blue, and special guest pianist Cyrus Chestnut. The a-cappella group performs a variety of holiday songs including African-American spirituals, jazz and pop tunes, and classical repertoire.

1pm: The Shepherd
The year is 1957. A Royal Air Force pilot is heading home from Germany for Christmas. Fog sets in and all radio communication is lost. Continuing the tradition since 1979, As It Happens presents a Christmas Eve reading of Frederick Forsyth’s The Shepherd by the late host “Fireside” Al Maitland.

2pm: Selected Shorts: What You Wish For
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three Christmas stories in different moods—satirical, fantastical, and nostalgic: “A Visit from Saint Nicholas (In the Ernest Hemingway Manner),” by James Thurber, performed by James Naughton; “O’Brien’s First Christmas,” by Jeanette Winterson, performed by Jayne Atkinson; and “One Christmas,” by Truman Capote, performed by John Shea.

3pm: A Christmas Carol w/ Jonathan Winters
A public radio tradition hosted by NPR’s Susan Stamberg. Master comedian Jonathan Winters presents a distinctive reading of Dickens’ holiday classic, with a special performing edition prepared by Dickens for his own presentations.

6:30pm: The Christmas Skater
Sherwin Sleeves has retired to a small cabin on top of Marked Mountain in Lemon, New Hampshire. Every year at Christmas, he takes out his skates and goes for a ritual journey down a wilderness river…always hoping that a woman from his long ago past will finally agree to meet up with him at a certain special spot along the river.

7pm: A Rochester Festival of Lessons and Carols
Recorded at Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York under the direction of organist/choirmaster James Kealey, the Festival tells the Christmas story in words and music and is presented all over the world in many languages and variations.

8pm: Handel’s Messiah from Trinity Wall Street

In this special broadcast, renowned conductor Andrew Megill leads the Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra in what The New York Times calls “the best Messiah in New York.”

9am: Welcome Christmas
An hour of traditional carols and new discoveries from VocalEssence, one of the world’s premiere choral groups.

10am: St. Olaf Christmas Festival
A service in song and word that has become one of the nation’s most cherished holiday celebrations. The festival includes hymns, carols, choral works, as well as orchestral selections celebrating the Nativity and featuring more than 500 student musicians in five choirs and the St. Olaf Orchestra.

Noon: A Rochester Festival of Lessons and Carols
Encore from 7pm on December 24.

1pm: A Chanticleer Christmas
This holiday season, the Grammy award-winning vocal ensemble brings its brand-new Christmas program which includes original arrangements of well-known tunes drawn from Classical, Jazz, and Popular traditions. They fluently weave between diverse musical styles to create an evening of wonder and joy.

2pm: A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
Encore from 10am on December 24.

6pm: St. Olaf Christmas Festival
Encore from 10am.

8pm: A Special Thistle and Shamrock Christmas
Join Fiona Ritchie for a winter walk along the banks of the River Tay in Scotland, accompanied by music from the Celtic Christmas repertoire.

9pm: Jazz Piano Christmas 2025
Check out your favorite holiday classics as you’ve never heard them! This year, the annual sell-out event spotlights ferociously talented Japanese musical phenom Hiromi, Mountain Stage’s Bob Thompson, and Bolivian prodigy José André Montaño, chosen as one of the Kennedy Center’s “Next 50” leaders.

10pm: The Sound of Cinnamon
Experience coziness and contentment with a hygge soundtrack perfect for finding your favorite pair of slippers and putting your feet up.

Noon and 8pm: Our Common Nature
Host Ana González – who accompanied Yo-Yo Ma on many of his travels – explores the sounds, stories, and communities they encountered that remind us that, in Yo-Yo’s words, “we are part of nature … to love each other is to love our planet.”

Noon: 2025 Remembered
Join The Current in honoring the life, music, and legacy of artists we lost this year with 2025 Remembered. This two-hour musical tribute is a celebration of all sounds – from indie to influential – and the perfect way for music lovers to unite in paying homage to the artists who have shaped music history.

6pm: Toast of the Nation
Happy New Year from Toast of the Nation, your NPR New Year’s Eve tradition since the 1970s. Enjoy sets from Nicole Zuraitis, Kassa Overall, Sofía Rei, Marcus Gilmore, Marshall Allen, Kokayi, Amir ElSaffar and Jack DeJohnette in George Colligan’s trio.

11am and 7pm: New Year’s Day from Vienna 2026
The ever-popular annual New Year’s Day Concert will be performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Yannick Nezet-Seguim in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna.

Noon and 8pm: BBC Correspondents’ Look Ahead to 2026
Join BBC correspondents and editors from across the globe as they peer into their crystal balls to predict what 2026 might hold.