Celebrate the season with a curated lineup of holiday specials airing on NWPB's News, Jazz and Classical services throughout December - right through New Year's Day 2026. From timeless classics to fresh new features, these programs bring warmth, joy, and discovery to your winter listening. We invite you to tune in and make these festive broadcasts part of your holiday moments.
(This list will be updated occasionally to reflect the most up-to-date schedule.)
Hanukkah Lights
NWPB News December 15, 7pm
This NPR favorite returns with a new story plus gems from the archive. Hosted by Murray Horwitz with a special tribute to the beloved Susan Stamberg, who passed away just a couple of months ago. NPR is not quite the same without her – perhaps most of all, Hanukkah Lights. But with thirty-five years of stories in the can, there are dozens of Susan’s performances that can still move us, make us laugh, and bring us fresh meaning. To use her favorite word, she still sounds “terrific”.
Candles Burning Brightly
NWPB Classical December 15, 8pm
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.
A Chanukah Celebration with Chicago A Cappella
NWPB Classical December 15, 9pm
Join Jonathan Miller, artistic director of Chicago a cappella and a longtime champion of Jewish choral music, for an inspiring and informative show featuring choral music set to Chanukah texts.
Messiah Revealed
NWPB Classical December 16, 8pm & NWPB News December 23, 7pm
Handel's Messiah is possibly the most famous and popular piece of classical music of all time. Yet it's full of secrets and surprises. The founding director of the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, Ivars Taurins, has conducted Messiah over 200 times. Robert Harris is a veteran CBC Radio broadcaster. In nine movements, they reveal the hidden treasures of Handel's celebrated work.
Welcome Christmas!
NWPB Classical December 17, 8pm & December 25, 3pm
Welcome Christmas! is a perennial Christmas favorite from VocalEssence, one of the world's premier choral ensembles, conducted by Philip Brunelle and G. Phillip Shoultz. Join host Bonnie North for an hour of traditional carols and new discoveries.
St. Olaf Christmas Festival
NWPB Classical December 18, 8pm & December 25, 1pm
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.
Press A to Play Winter Special
NWPB Classical December 19, 3pm & December 20, 6pm
Video game music for the winter season. Maybe some tunes that evoke the holidays, maybe some that just feel like cold snowy weather.
In Winter’s Glow
NWPB Classical December 20, 7pm & December 25, 8pm
A winter solstice program with modern classical sounds for the longest night of the year, chosen especially to complement the chilly, starry nights of the season.
CBC Reclaimed: Winter Solstice
NWPB Classical December 21, 9am & December 24, 10am
Celebrate the holidays with a collection of Indigenous songs that capture the spirit of the season. This time of year is special for many Indigenous People. Some families embrace traditional Christmas festivities, others spend this time of reflection and transformation deep in ceremonies to honor the coming of winter. Enjoy classic carols reimagined and original music to carry the light into the coming season.
Christmas Revels: In Celebration of the Winter Solstice
NWPB Classical December 21, 1pm & December 25, 11am
A two-hour musical celebration of the winter holidays – Advent, the Solstice, Christmas, St. Stephen’s Day, New Year’s and Twelfth Night/Epiphany – featuring traditional carols, wassails, pub songs, hymns, spirituals, children’s singing games, and folk dance-tunes excerpted from live Christmas and Midwinter Revels stage productions presented around the country.
CBC Ideas: Winter Solstice
NWPB Classical December 21, 3pm & December 24, 9pm
It's the shortest day – and the longest night – and the darkness associated with it has had a lot of bad press throughout the ages. But the winter solstice may be exactly what we need during the holidays, with the crush of Christmas and the revelry of New Year's. Paolo Pietropaolo, host of CBC Music’s In Concert talks with Ideas host Nahlah Ayed about his "alternative soundtrack" to the season – music that provides an antidote to the constant barrage of loud commercials, shopping frenzies and time-squeezes that can build up at this time of year.
Selected Shorts: What You Wish For
NWPB News December 21, 5pm
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.
CBC Ideas: Laughing Matters
NWPB News December 21, 6pm
What role does laughter play in the evolution of humanity? What does our laughter have in common with the way primates and even rats laugh? Tune in for a joyride throughout our evolutionary history that shows us why laughing matters.
Christmas with Madrigalia
NWPB Classical December 22, 8pm & December 24, 9am & December 25, 9pm
Rochester, NY chamber choir Madrigalia and Artistic Director Cary Ratcliff present a concert of traditional carols, anthems and new arrangements to celebrate the winter solstice, Chanukah and Christmas around the world. Recorded live at Asbury United Methodist Church in Rochester, NY, this concert includes "The Fiddle Witch" Alyssa Rodriguez who accompanies some of the Scandanavian selections on her Swedish instrument, the Nyckleharpa, along with clarinetist Peggy Quackenbush and pianist Amanda von Rathonyi.
The Sound of Cinnamon
NWPB Classical December 22, 9pm & December 24, 8pm
What does hygge mean to you? Maybe it means friendship, laughter, or more concrete things like warmth, light, seasonal food and drink. It might make you think of sitting by the fire on a cold winter night, wearing your favorite oversized sweater, reading a book, and sipping cinnamon tea. In The Sound of Cinnamon, host Jake Armerding invites you to experience coziness and contentment with a hygge soundtrack perfect for finding your favorite pair of slippers and putting your feet up.
A Chanticleer Christmas
NWPB Classical December 23, 8pm & December 24, 2pm
Grammy award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer is known as the “orchestra of voices” for its unparalleled range and abilities. This holiday season, the group brings its brand-new Christmas program including 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.
Carols, Customs, and Candlelight: A Celtic Celebration
NWPB Classical December 23, 9pm & December 24, 3pm
The Celtic lands of Northwestern Europe have an especially rich musical heritage, and many Christmas songs and carols come from places like Ireland, Scotland, Brittany and other Celtic nations. Listen as host Andrea Blain explores music and customs that have roots in ancient winter celebrations and traditional Christmas festivals. The music features classical ensembles and soloists like Apollo’s Fire and Bryn Terfel, as well as traditional instruments like harp, fiddle and mandolin. Lots of well-known Christmas music comes from the Celtic tradition, and some very beautiful but lesser-known festive music.
Nochebuena with the Spanish Hour
NWPB Classical December 23, 10pm
Tune in for Christmas Eve musical traditions from 17th-century Mexico, a work of prophecy from 15th-century Valencia, and "The Adoration, Part Four" of Pablo Casals' oratorio El Pesebre (The Nativity or The Manger) in an historic recording conducted by Casals.
The Spanish Hour: A Spanish Renaissance Christmas
NWPB Classical December 23, 11pm
The Spanish Siglo de Oro – Golden Age – witnessed an astonishing musical flowering. Enjoy works for the nativity by the greatest of Spain's composers from the 16th century: Tomás Luis de Victoria, Francisco Guerrero, Alonso Lobo, Cristóbal de Morales, and Mateo Flecha "the Elder."
Gaudete! An Early Music Christmas
NWPB Classical December 24, 11am
Sara Schneider, producer and host of Early Music Now, presents Gaudete! Early Music for the Christmas Season, with joyful and contemplative sounds of the season. Hear Byzantine chant by Kassiani, and selections from Missa Puer natus est nobis by Thomas Tallis, plus hymns and motets from Spain, Germany, and France. Performers include The Cardinall’s Musick, Theatre of Voices, Cappella Romana, and Oltremontano.
Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols 2025
NWPB Classical December 24, 12pm & December 24, 10pm & December 25, 9am
Since 1918, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols has offered listeners an opportunity to share in a live, worldwide Christmas Eve broadcast of a service of biblical readings, carols and related seasonal classical music. This special event is presented by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, one of the world’s foremost choirs of men and boys, and performed in an acoustically and architecturally renowned venue, the college’s 500-year-old chapel.
As It Happens: The Shepherd
NWPB News December 24, 9pm
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.
Tonic: The Funky Groove Show - Winter Holiday
NWPB Jazz December 25, 10am to 4pm
If you like holiday music, but you need a little Funk, don’t miss Tonic: The Funky Groove Show! You'll hear funky, instrumental covers of classic holiday tunes, groovy organ takes on traditional songs of the season, and soulful tracks about winter weather. From classics to undiscovered rarities, you're in for a funky sleigh ride!
Holiday Jazz with Dee Alexander
NWPB Jazz December 25, 4pm
Beloved Chicago vocalist and WFMT Radio Network Jazz Network host Dee Alexander entertains and enchants with songs and reminiscences of holidays past. With support from emcee and Chicago radio luminary Richard Steele and longtime collaborators pianist Miguel de la Cerna, bassist Junius Paul, and drummer Yussef Ernie Adams.
Jazz Piano Christmas 2025
NWPB Jazz December 25, 5pm
Your favorite holiday classics as you’ve never heard them! The Kennedy Center and NPR present A Jazz Piano Christmas, the annual sell-out event featuring jazz-infused renditions of the season’s most-loved tunes performed by Grammy Award–winning pianist Kris Davis, 2023 Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition winner Jahari Stampley, and Cuban sensation Roberto Fonseca.
Vince Guaraldi’s Christmas Gift to Jazz with Jana Lee Ross
NWPB Jazz December 25, 6pm
Host Jana Lee Ross presents this special filled with warm-hearted sounds to bring together everyone in the family. Vince Guaraldi‘s music to A Charlie Brown Christmas ushers in the sound of the holidays for jazz fans as well as Charlie Brown fans. Songs like “Linus and Lucy,” “Skating” and “Christmas Time Is Here” have become holiday classics and have inspired many a jazz player. Jana Lee Ross will explore interpretations of Vince Guaraldi’s tunes by Cyrus Chestnut, Dianne Reeves, David Benoit and others. And of course you’ll hear from Vince Guaraldi himself.
No Place Like Oz
NWPB News December 26, 7pm
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz captivated young readers when it was published in 1900, becoming an instant best-seller. Thirty-nine more official Oz books followed, as well as derivative works; Broadway musicals, films, comic books, cartoons, sitcom parodies, prestige TV, and novels that take Oz in new directions. Travel the proverbial yellow brick road to uncover how this seemingly simple story of friendship, self reliance and longing for home continues to speak to us, 125 years after it was published.
New Year’s Day from Vienna 2026
NWPB Classical January 1, 2pm
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. Hosted by WBUR's Lisa Mullins.
