Holiday Traditions

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.

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.

The perfect gift book, featuring the writing of Meryl Streep, Bill Bailey, Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman, Caitlin Moran, Richard Ayoade, Emily Watson and others, to coincide with the upcoming movie Last Christmas, starring Emma Thompson, Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding. When you think back to Christmases past, what (if anything) made it magical? This is a beautiful, funny and soulful collection of personal essays about the meaning of Christmas, written by a unique plethora of voices from the boulevards of Hollywood to the soup kitchens of Covent Garden.

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.

Some people are Christmas people, but Jill Jacobs is most certainly not. She hasn’t been ever since her hometown love broke her heart on Christmas Eve three years ago. After that, Jill moved to L.A. to pursue her dream of becoming a screenwriter. She hasn’t been home in years to avoid her ex...

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.

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.

Ever wonder why everyone wants to immigrate to America? Rediscovering America answers that question, and it’s like no other history you have ever encountered. More than an account of people, dates, and events, this story is about the hidden hand of a purposeful historical development where the main actors are colorful characters, participating in an American drama of little-known but remarkable events where overcoming incredible odds of failure is more unbelievable and engaging than fiction.

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 folklore roots of Christmas under its many other guises (Yule, the Winter Solstice, Saturnalia) is examined in a different, darker light. The Winter Solstice is a time to be afraid. It’s the shortest day of the year, the longest night. In some parts of the world, the sun doesn’t rise at all. It’s dark, and we have to wonder if the sun will ever come back at all. Christmas has always been creepy and with The Fright Before Christmas, you'll see that side. This is a book for everyone who loves a little darkness around the holidays.

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?