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Holiday Radio Programming

WUFT-FM:

  • TUE 12/24 @ 8PM – Selected Shorts: Holiday Hitches
    • We love the holidays, but sometimes things don’t go as planned. This seasonal special from SELECTED SHORTS, hosted by Meg Wolitzer, offers three tales about uncommon roads travelled by the celebrants. Writers, including Andy Borowitz, mesh tradition, humor, and family dynamics for the perfect seasonal package.
  • TUE 12/24 @ 9PM – Tinsel Tales 4: NPR Christmas Stories Told Through Song
    • NPR revisits interviews with musicians about their Christmas albums. Some, like Katie Melua and Sting, celebrate tradition and winter mystery in their Christmas songs. Others, like Kenny Rogers and Amy Grant, find spirituality and stability in holiday music. Jon Batiste and Anthony Hamilton bring new energy to old favorites on their Christmas albums. Hosted by Lynn Neary.
  • TUE 12/24 @ 10PM – WUFT Sounds of the Season
    • The University of Florida School of Music presents the 76th Annual Sounds of the Season: Songs of Hope & Joy.
    • Featuring over 300 performers, this year’s program features the UF Symphony Orchestra, UF Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, Gainesville Master Chorale, and the Latin Grammy award-winning band, Maharajah Flamenco Trio. President Fuchs will narrate Longfellow’s Christmas.
  • TUE 12/24 @ 11PM – The Christmas Revels: In Celebration of the Winter Solstice 2024
    • A brand-new compilation of musical excerpts, plus a few short poetry and prose readings, selected from live Christmas and Midwinter Revels stage productions presented in five cities across the United States.
  • WED 12/25 @ 12AM – Handel’s Messiah from Trinity Wall Street
    • Trinity Wall Street and Handel's Messiah have a long tradition in New York City, dating back to 1770 when the historic church presented one of the first North American performances of the Oratorio. In this special broadcast, renowned conductor Andrew Megill leads the Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra in what The New York Times calls "the best Messiah in New York." WQXR's Jeff Spurgeon hosts.
  • WED 12/25 @ 3AM – Three Tales of Christmas with Cantus
    • In Christmas with Cantus, Cantus weaves together three holiday stories with time-honored carols and new classics. Blending narration and song, the program features Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Christine Lê’s The Hawai’i Snowman, alongside Mark Twain’s “A Letter from Santa Claus,” offering an opportunity to reflect on the meaning and joy of the holiday season.
  • WED 12/25 @ 4AM – A World Cafe Holiday
    • World Cafe celebrated 30 years by revisiting special holiday performances from Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Los Lobos, Andrew Bird, The Bird and The Bee, Pink Martini, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and more. Hosted by Raina Douris, this musical gift will provide a full hour of hip holiday cheer.
  • WED 12/25 @ 8PM – Hanukkah Lights 2024
    • This NPR favorite returns with some of our favorite stories from the archives. We’ll hear “Gifts of the Last Night” by Rebecca Goldstein, “Hanukkah Gelt, Hanukkah Money” by Sholem Aleichem, “Gifts of the Jewish Magi” by Allegra Goodman, How to Spell the Name of God” by Ellen Orleans and “Geek Week by Rebecca O’Connell.
  • WED 12/25 @ 10PM – Two Holidays and a Blizzard
    • Three short plays. THE BLIZZARD, a chilly thriller, features Jesse Eisenberg as a snowed-in screenwriter facing unexpected guests. In THE MIRACLE OF CHANUKAH, a holiday guest’s personal miracle throws a family for a loop. In CHRISTMAS BREAKS, a guy dumps a girl but presents a substitute. Interview with David Ives, John Rando and The Blizzard cast; Sheri Wilner and The Miracle of Chanukah cast and the cast of Christmas Breaks.
  • THU 12/26 @ 8PM – The Sounds of Kwanzaa
    • The Sounds of Kwanzaa with Garrett McQueen
  • THU 12/26 @ 10PM – A Season’s Griot
    • Celebrate Kwanzaa with song and story; produced at WHQR and hosted by storyteller Madafo Lloyd Wilson.
  • TUE 12/31 @ 8PM – 2024 Remembered from The Current
    • Join The Current in honoring the life, music, and legacy of artists we lost this year with 2024 Remembered from The Current. This two-hour musical tribute is a celebration of all sounds - from indie to influential - and the perfect way for music lovers to unite in paying homage to the artists who have shaped music history.
  • TUE 12/31 @ 10PM – Toast of the Nation 2024
    • An NPR tradition every New Year's Eve since the 1970s. It's festive jazz you can party to, all night long.
  • THU 1/2 @ 8PM – Chanukah in Story and Song: Sung by the The Western Wind; Narrated by Leonard Nimoy
    • The acclaimed vocal sextet and the renowned actor present 25 eclectic selections, from the Ladino songs of the Spanish Jews and Yiddish melodies of Eastern Europe to modern Israeli tunes and their original version of “I Have a Little Dreydle.” The singers sing a cappella and are also joined by instruments including violin, accordion, bass and guitar. The narration written by Rabbi Gerald Skolnik sheds light on the holiday customs and rituals.

WUFT CLASSIC 

  • FRI 12/20 @ 10PM – Jazz Piano Christmas 40
    • 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 music. This year, we spotlight remarkable pianist, vocalist, and actress Melvis Santa—whose eclectic Afro-Cuban style has made her one of the most electrifying artists on the scene—in addition to internationally acclaimed Cuban composer and jazz pianist Alfredo Rodriguez. Hosted by Felix Contreras.
  • FRI 12/20 @ 11PM – A Swinging Holiday Jazz Party with Wynton Marsalis
    • Wynton Marsalis hosts an hour of holiday jazz favorites by Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Gregory Porter, René Marie, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
  • SAT 12/21 @ 10PM – Joy to the World 2024 with Vocalist Maria Muldaur
    • Guest Vocalist Maria Muldaur brings some jumping swing and classic holiday blues tunes to this year's Joy to the World with pianist Bob Thompson.
  • SAT 12/21 @ 11PM – A Latin Jazz Christmas Experience
    • "Ho ho ho," A mixture of Mambo, Rhumba, Latin Jazz and fun in this blend of "Christmas Season" arrangements all in this musical presentation.
  • MON 12/23 @ 1-3PM – St. Olaf Christmas Festival 2024: Celebrating 150 Years of St. Olaf College
    • For one and a half centuries, St. Olaf has been a hub of connections, knowledge, and growth. And for more than a century, the St. Olaf Christmas festival has been a cherished part of that history. Join us as we celebrate their legacy.
  • MON 12/23 @ 3PM – YourClassical Christmas Favorites
    • Join us this holiday season as we count down the top Christmas songs as voted by listeners in a new hour-long special.
  • TUE 12/24 @ 9AM – WUFT Sounds of the Season
    • The University of Florida School of Music presents the 76th Annual Sounds of the Season: Songs of Hope & Joy.
    • Featuring over 300 performers, this year’s program features the UF Symphony Orchestra, UF Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, Gainesville Master Chorale, and the Latin Grammy award-winning band, Maharajah Flamenco Trio. President Fuchs will narrate Longfellow’s Christmas.
  • TUE 12/24 @ 10AM – A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols (two hours live)
    • A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols presents a live, world-wide Christmas Eve broadcast of a service of Biblical readings, carols, and related seasonal Classical music. This special will be presented by one of the world’s foremost choirs of men and boys and performed in an acoustically and architecturally renowned venue, the 500-year-old Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, England.
  • TUE 12/24 @ 1-3PM – The Christmas Revels: In Celebration of the Winter Solstice 2024
    • A brand-new, two-hour musical celebration of the winter holidays – Advent, Chanukah, the Solstice, Las Posadas, Christmas, 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.
  • TUE 12/24 @ 3PM – All is Bright
    • All Is Bright, with host Lynne Warfel, offers an hour of gorgeous, contemplative choral music that tells the traditional Christmas story with songs about angels, the star and the manger scene. Featured artists include Cantus, Chanticleer, Cambridge Singers, Bryn Terfel, Emma Kirkby, Jessye Norman, and a variety of choirs. Encore from 2023.
  • WED 12/25 @ 1PM – A Chanukah Celebration with Chicago a cappella
    • 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.
  • WED 12/25 @ 2PM – Chanukah Memories and Melodies
    • In this special from WQXR, six prominent artists share memories of Chanukah, and the music the holiday brings to mind. From soothing to surprising, from reverent to rowdy, their musical choices will inspire and delight you. With Broadway actress Tovah Feldshuh, social entrepreneur Aaron Dworkin, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, Sephardic music virtuoso Daphna Mor, conductor Eric Jacobsen, and Yiddish music maven Henry Sapoznik.
  • WED 12/25 @ 3PM – Itzhak Perlman’s Chanukah Radio Party
    • Itzhak Perlman invites you to his Chanukah Radio Party. Join the superstar violinist as he tells the story of the Jewish festival of lights and shares his favorite recordings for the holiday – some serious, some silly.
  • WED 12/25 @ 4PM – Hanukkah Lights 2024
    • This NPR favorite returns with some of our favorite stories from the archives. We’ll hear “Gifts of the Last Night” by Rebecca Goldstein, “Hanukkah Gelt, Hanukkah Money” by Sholem Aleichem, “Gifts of the Jewish Magi” by Allegra Goodman, How to Spell the Name of God” by Ellen Orleans and “Geek Week by Rebecca O’Connell.
  • WED 12/25 @ 5PM – Candles Burning Brightly
    • 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.
  • WED 1/1 @ 11AM - New Year's Day from Vienna 2025
    • The ever-popular annual New Year’s Day Concert will be performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Riccardo Muti in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. Hosted by WBUR's Lisa Mullins.