- David Sedaris contributes his now classic “Santaland Diaries,” his account of his experiences playing Santa’s little helper at Macy’s in New York.
- Susan Stamberg sneaks her mother-in-law’s recipe for cranberry relish onto the air—again.
- Storyteller Kevin Kling finds an invitation to participate in a production of The Nutcracker too tempting to resist.
- Ghanian-born commentator Meri Danquah shares her thoughts on Kwanzaa.
- Cowboy poet Baxter Black describes a Christmas cookie with “the denseness of an anvil and the half-life of a radial tire.”
- Robert Siegel goes in search of the correct spelling for December’s Jewish holiday.
- The Thanksgiving tables are turned on unsuspecting Bostonians in “When Turkeys Attack.”


And more.