Tuesday, Dec. 17th
7pm Air Play – Happy Holidays
WMRA’s own presentation of local classical performances will celebrate with a special mix of holiday music from around the region.
Friday, Dec. 2oth
7pm Handel’s Messiah from Boston
No holiday season is complete without Handel’s stunning oratorio, and one of Boston's most cherished holiday traditions: Music Director Harry Christophers leads the Handel & Haydn Society Period Instrument Orchestra, Chorus, and internationally-acclaimed soloists in Handel's dramatic masterwork, in the acoustic splendor of Boston’s Symphony Hall.
Saturday, Dec. 21st
12pm Acoustic Café –Home for the Holidays
Tina Owens presents some of the best holiday music from our area and the Acoustic Café library.
1pm Winter Solstice Celebration
One of NPR's most popular holiday specials returns with new talent and old friends. Malian singer Abdoulaye Diabate joins The Paul Winter Consort with Paul McCandless, the Drummers of The Fores of Nature, Gospel vocalist Theresa Thomason, and the historic reassembly of the Paul Winter Sextet in the World's Largest Gothic Cathedral -- New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The Winter Solstice Celebration is a contemporary take on ancient solstice rituals, when people came together during the longest night of the year to celebrate the return of the sun, as the Earth begins its rotational cycle back towards summer. Now in its 33rd year, the performance at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the world's largest cathedral, is New York's favorite holiday alternative to The Nutcracker and Radio City Christmas.
Sunday, Dec. 22nd
8pm A Christmas Celtic Sojourn 2013
Direct from the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston, a Celtic celebration of the season, with top-flight traditional singers and instrumentalists, and a story or two from host Brian O’Donovan.
10pm All Songs Considered for the Holidays
It's the fifth edition of the wonky holiday tradition from NPR Music. Host Bob Boilen and friends trade holiday cheer and snarky barbs while bringing you the best holiday songs from new and emerging breakout bands. Hear renditions of great holiday music you'll never hear at the mall.
Monday, Dec. 23rd
3pm Tinsel Tales: NPR Christmas Favorites
This program features stories from the NPR archives that touch on the meaning of Christmas. David Sedaris, Bailey White, John Henry Faulk -- these and other NPR voices, past and present, tell stories of the season.
Featured Stories:
- 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)
Tuesday, Dec. 25th
7pm Air Play – Happy Holidays
WMRA’s own presentation of local classical performances will celebrate with a special mix of holiday music from around the region.
Thursday, Dec. 26th
3pm A Season's Griot 2013
This year's Kwanzaa celebration in story and song focuses on family with familiar and favorite elements of Griot, and plenty of music. This is public radio's only nationally syndicated Kwanzaa program. Hosted for nearly 20 years by acclaimed storyteller Madafo Lloyd Wilson, this annual special captures the tales and traditions of African American and African peoples.
Monday, Dec. 31st
3pm The Capitol Steps: Politics Takes a Holiday
Help roast 2013 to a crisp with the Capitol Steps and their annual year-in-review awards ceremony. It’s all in their hour-long special, “Politics Takes a Holiday!” This year will feature all-new awards, such as: “Best Moment in Senator Ted Cruz’s 21-hour Filibuster,” “Most ‘icky’ Tweet from Carlos Danger” “Best Thigh-Reducing Exercises to do While Waiting for Healthcare.gov” and, of course, “Best Reason to Spy On the American Public- Because You Can!” The Capitol Steps began as a group of Senate staffers who set out to satirize the very people and places that employed them. They put the “mock” in “democracy.”
