Holiday Traditions

Once fall hits and the chilly weather settles in, the holiday season has begun! And nothing embodies holiday spirit more than the continuing of family traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation. May it be sharing stories at the dinner table, laughs on the porch, or just time spent alone - everyone has their own ritual. Join Dana Cowin, author and former editor-in-chief of Food & Wine, as she chats with some of today’s most popular chefs and food personalities.

Christmas Day is a time of celebration for many people all around the world. Those who celebrate it see it as a joyous time. But Christmas is celebrated in many different ways in different countries. One country has a feast known as "reveillon". In another country people like to go to the beach on Christmas Day! Can you guess which countries these are?

Weihnachten ist das größte jährliche Ereignis auf dem Planeten, eine Zeit des Fröhlichseins, der Übertreibung, des Friedens, des guten Willens und des gelegentlichen Familienstreits. Dieses Fest ist so bequem und vertraut wie ein altes Paar Schuhe und dabei trotzdem noch immer voller Glitzer und Aufregung. Aber was wissen wir wirklich darüber? Weihnachten ist vollgestopft mit Traditionen und Ritualen, die die meisten von uns schon unser ganzes Leben lang beobachten, ohne die geringste Ahnung zu haben, woher sie kommen.

Christmas is about celebrating! It is a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. Some people mark the holiday with Christmas trees and other decorations. People gather with family and friends to eat meals and give gifts. Listeners will discover how a shared holiday can have multiple traditions and be celebrated in all sorts of ways.

Christmas Past: The Fascinating Stories Behind Our Favorite Holiday’s Traditions reveals the surprising, quirky, mysterious, and sometimes horrifying stories behind the most wonderful time of the year.

The stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul will encourage listeners to stay upbeat, because there's always a brighter way to look at life. This collection includes 32 Stories of Christmas humor, memories, and holiday traditions.

Meet Willam, Harold, and Lew Christensen, three small-town Utah boys who caught the ballet bug from an uncle in the early 1900s. They performed alongside elephants on vaudeville and even put on a ballet featuring gangsters at a gas station. Russian immigrants shared the story of The Nutcracker with them, and during World War II, they staged their own Christmastime production. It was the beginning of a delightful holiday tradition. Follow along and learn how The Nutcracker came to be performed all across the United States from these truly humble beginnings.

*Selected as a Reader Favourite in Good Housekeeping's Good Books Winter Collection!* ‘I loved it … Christmas isn’t Christmas without a Sarah Morgan book. She is a stunning author and knows the recipe for a perfect festive read’ Reader review ***** 'The perfect five-star read to curl up...

Read by the author, Kari Leibowitz Do you dread the clocks changing, and struggle to stay positive in winter? Do you struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and don't know how to address it? Nobody can change the weather, but Dr. Kari Leibowitz's groundbreaking How to Winter will help...

"Patti Murin's delightful narration reflects the tongue-in-cheek tone of this holiday romance novel...[her] performance ensures that this audiobook pokes fun at holiday movies in a fun yet meaningful way." — Kirkus Some people are Christmas people, but Jill Jacobs is most certainly not. She...

America's Favorite Holidays explores how five of America's culturally important holidays - Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, and Thanksgiving - came to be what they are today, seasonal and religious celebrations heavily influenced by modern popular culture.

Spend the holidays in Silver Springs, where the greatest gift of all is the love you never expected. Up-and-coming TV anchor Emery Bliss can’t imagine anything more humiliating than the sex tape her ex revenge-posted online. That is, until it causes her to lose her job on top of her...

It is one year after the triplets changed their lives and relocated to Asheville, each starting off in a new direction. Once again, the holidays bring challenges and change, happiness and heartbreak, and the power of unbreakable family bonds. Join these strong, funny, and loving women as the holiday spirit lifts them as high as the Blue Ridge Mountains as they celebrate old traditions and create a few new ones along the way.

This program contains music and full sound design. Start your own holiday tradition inspired by this bestselling Yuletide story. Based on a real Icelandic tradition where people gift books to their family and friends on Christmas Eve, The Christmas Book Flood brings all the sparkle and...

Bestselling author Michael Foley dives deep into the history of Christmas and the customs that surround this beloved holiday. Learn about the fascinating origins of your favorite Christmas food, drink, observances, and songs. Discover how Saint Nicolas, a fourth-century Catholic bishop, became Santa Clause and who Santa’s global competitors are (some of them will shock you). And dig into the forbidden history of the Yuletide season’s dark and ghoulish side.

Not so very long ago, Yuletide was as much a chilling season of ghosts and witches as it was a festival of goodwill. In The Old Magic of Christmas, you'll rub elbows with veiled spirits, learn the true perils of elves, and discover a bestiary of enchanted creatures. Rife with the more frightful characters from folklore and the season's most petulant ghosts, this book takes you on a spooky sleigh ride from the silvered firs of a winter forest to the mirrored halls of the Snow Queen. 

The winter solstice, the day the "sun stands still," marks the longest night and the shortest day of the year, and it comes either on December 20th or 21st. Celebrations honoring the winter solstice as a moment of transition and renewal date back thousands of years and occur among many peoples on every continent. The Return of the Light makes an ideal companion for everyone who carries on this tradition, no matter what their faith.

Christmas is a time of seasonal cheer, family get-togethers, holiday parties, and-gift giving. Lots and lots - and lots - of gift giving. It's hard to imagine any Christmas without this time-honored custom. But let's stop to consider the gifts we receive - the rooster sweater from Grandma or the singing fish from Uncle Mike. How many of us get gifts we like? How many of us give gifts not knowing what recipients want? Did your cousin really look excited about that jumping alarm clock?