Hidden Sixties Holiday Special
Friday, Dec. 17th, 8:00 PM
Pass the nutmeg -- and turn up the radio -- as Santa's Workshop gets temporarily relocated to Studio D within the Public Radio Tulsa Broadcast Studios! It's "Hidden Sixties" time once again, folks, and co-hosts John Wooley and Scott Gregory are back with a proverbial sleighful of music that you haven't heard since the 1960s, if you've heard it at all. From pop, rock, folk, and funk...to jazz, R&B, easy listening, and spoken word...this is good-time yuletide radio with oddities and curios and buried treasures galore.
All This Jazz: The Christmas Show
Saturday, Dec. 18th, 9:00 PM
Saturday, Dec. 25th, 9:00 PM
It's modern jazz, both recent and classic, across a range of styles...and it's ideally suited for trimming trees, wrapping gifts, looking at lights, baking cookies, or maybe just relaxing by the fire with a holiday-themed cocktail. Or three. From "Frosty" and "Rudolph" to "The Holly and the Ivy" and "Greensleeves," All This Jazz will spin lots and lots of evening music for making merry -- and making memories, and making spirits bright -- on Saturday the 18th as well as Saturday the 25th (with the 12/25 show being an encore program). Tune in, jazz fans!
Jazz Piano Christmas 37
Saturday, Dec. 18th, 10:00 PM
Join the Kennedy Center and NPR Music for this annual holiday tradition highlighting jazz pianists and their favorite seasonal music, captured in performance before a small audience. The lineup this year includes Patrice Rushen, Gerald Clayton, and Eric Reed.
Tinsel Tales 1
Wednesday, Dec. 22nd, 11:00 AM
Audie Cornish, Ken Harbaugh, Nina Totenberg and other voices from NPR’s past and present tell stories of the season. Some are funny; others are insightful, nostalgic or surprising, and some are touching, including O. Henry’s classic, “The Gift of The Magi.”
Tinsel Tales 2
Thursday, Dec. 23rd, 11:00 AM
Thursday, Dec. 23rd, 7:00 PM
NPR fills homes each holiday with humor, warmth, and a host of festive voices. Here is a collection of some of the best and most requested holiday stories from Bill Harley, Daniel Pinkwater, historian Douglas Brinkley, and the Duck’s Breath Mystery Theatre of San Francisco.
Selected Shorts: Holiday Hurdles with David Sedaris
Thursday, Dec. 23rd, Noon
In Selected Shorts: Holiday Hurdles, listeners are invited to reimage holiday rituals. Selected Shorts’ late host and founder Isaiah Sheffer reads Tobias Wolff’s “Powder,” in which a pre-Christmas snowstorm provides an adventure for a father and son. In Allegra Goodman’s gentle borrowing from an O. Henry classic, Dana Ivey and Michael Cerveris read her “Gifts of the Jewish Magi.” And Jeanette Winterson captures the city to a T in her “Christmas in New York,” a modern fairy tale with a hint of magic, performed by Richard Masur.
Tinsel Tales 3
Friday, Dec. 24th, 11:00 AM
Friday, Dec. 24th, 7:00 PM
The original compilation of stories from the NPR archives that touch on the meaning of Christmas, including David Sedaris’ “Santaland Diaries,” Bailey White’s “Low-Glamour Christmas Party,” and John Henry Faulk’s Christmas Story, which dares listeners not to tear up.
A Christmas Carol with Jonathan Winters
Friday, Dec. 24th, 8:00 PM
A public radio tradition every bit as cherished as A Charlie Brown Christmas or How the Grinch Stole Christmas, this star turn for the late master-comedian Jonathan Winters presents a distinctive reading of Charles Dickens’ holiday classic. The show offers an adapted "performing edition" that had been prepared by Dickens himself for his own readings in the 19th Century.
The Rhythm Atlas Christmas Special
Sunday, Dec. 26th, 6:00 PM
Join host Denis McGilvray for a celebration of Christmas music from around the world on The Rhythm Atlas Christmas Special. You’ll hear familiar favorites in fresh musical settings as well as holiday songs from a wide variety of musical traditions all over the globe. Tune in for a cup of musical cheer! Feliz Navidad! Joyeux Noël! Merry Christmas!
Toast of the Nation
Friday, Dec. 31st, 9:00 PM
Welcome the New Year with this popular NPR tradition that goes back to the 1970s, featuring festive jazz from around the country. We’ll hear trumpeter Keyon Harrold in a hometown appearance in St. Louis; organist Cory Henry from the Blue Note in New York City; harpist Brandee Younger from an outdoor concert on a vintage farm in Duck Creek, Long Island; and in honor of the 100th anniversary of composer Astor Piazzolla, the Quinteto Astor Piazzolla from a concert in Phoenix.
The Rhythm Atlas Best World Music Albums of 2021
Sunday, Jan. 2nd, 6:00 PM
Sunday, Jan. 9th, 6:00 PM
Host Denis McGilvray celebrates the Best World Music Albums of 2021 on the first two episodes of The Rhythm Atlas of the New Year. You’ll hear a mix of music that represents the wide variety of fantastic folk, roots, and global fusion albums that were released all over the globe in the past year.