Tune into special holiday programming throughout the month of December. We’re airing a variety of special programs to complement your holiday season. Whether you’re seeking a soundtrack to celebrate Christmas or wanting to illuminate the Festival of Lights with a crop of compelling fiction, there’s something for everyone this month. Here's what's coming up this holiday season.

The Best of Hannukah Lights

Join NPR’s Murray Horwitz and Susan Stamberg as they explore the Hanukkah tradition through fiction with "The Best of Hanukkah Lights." Modern day writers kindle our imaginations with stories inspired by the oil that miraculously burned in the temple for eight days and nights. This program is made possible by a grant from the Nathalie & Gladys Dalkowitz Charitable Trust.

Airs December 22 at noon. (KSTX 89.1 FM)

Voci di Sorelle: Sing We Noel

San Antonio's premier women's ensemble delight listeners with a repertoire of holiday Medieval and Renaissance music from their concert at Mission San Jose.

Airs December 23 at 8 p.m. (KPAC 88.3 FM & KTXI 90.1 FM)

A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

A cherished holiday tradition returns to our airwaves. From King’s College in Cambridge, England comes the legendary Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. Now in its ninetieth year, this beloved Christmas Eve service blends biblical readings with choral music as performed by the world famous 30-voice King’s College Choir.

Airs December 24 at 9 a.m. (KPAC 88.3 FM)

Tinsel Tales

This program features stories from the NPR archives that touch on the meaning of Christmas. David Sedaris, Bailey White, John Henry Faulk -- these and other NPR voices, past and present, tell stories of the season. Featured stories include: Dad 'n' Sam (Jay Allison); Homeless Christmas (Lee Stringer); Christmas Morning, 1949 (Sylvia Seymour/Paul Auster); Low-Glamour Christmas Party (Bailey White); Doing it in the Closet (John McIlwraith); Ode to Christmas (Chuck Kramer); Santaland Diaries (David Sedaris); and more.

Airs December 24 at 7 p.m. (KSTX 89.1 FM)

Jazz Piano Christmas XIX

This ever popular program will include original interpretations of holiday favorites performed in concert by established jazz stars and talented newcomers. As always, both the artists and audience are sure to have a good time. The exciting lineup includes Brazilian pianist and singer, Eliane Elias; Afro-Cuban jazz pianist and composer, Arturo O’Farrill; prolific pianist and composer of Latin and world music, Rebeca Mauleón; and New Orlean’s own premier modern jazz pianist, Ellis Marsalis.

Airs December 24 at 8 p.m. (KSTX 89.1 FM)

Christmas with the Morehouse & Spellman Glee Clubs

One of the great holiday traditions in America, the choirs of Morehouse and Spelman Colleges -- two of the most prestigious historically black institutions in the nation -- get together to present a spine-tingling concert program. This encore presentation features the best works of the last several years. It's a joyous celebration of the schools' tradition of singing excellence, with their trademark mixture of spirituals and carols.

Airs December 24 at 9 p.m. (KSTX 89.1 FM)

Red Hot Holiday Stomp

When Santa and the Mrs. get to dancin' the "New Orleans Bump," you know you're walking in a Wynton Wonderland--a place where joyous music meets comic storytelling. Wynton and Ellis Marsalis, Roberta Gumbel, Herlin Riley, Wycliffe Gordon, Don Vappie and friends rattle the rafters with holiday classics swung with Crescent City style. Bells, baby, bells.

Airs December 24 at 10 p.m. (KSTX 89.1 FM)

Conspirare: Christmas at the Carillon

America’s reigning mixed-voice choir in a surprising classical- and popular-music collage for the season. This special is a fresh take on Christmas, blending sacred and secular songs, as well as centuries-old classics and pop standards.

Airs December 24 at 10 p.m. (KPAC 88.3 FM & KTXI 90.1 FM)

Christmas Around the Country with Lisa Simone

The best of classical holiday music from coast to coast. NPR takes you from churches to concert halls to auditoriums to town halls all across the nation in search of performances that express the best of the holiday season. Lisa Simeone hosts.

Airs December 24 at 11 p.m. (KPAC 88.3 FM & KTXI 90.1 FM)

Peabo vs. the Christmas Meanies in 3-D

Join Texas Public Radio's Nathan Cone, David Furst, and Peabo, the Sunday Night Session rooster, as they battle the Christmas Meanies and count down to Santa's arrival at midnight with a bucket full of cool holiday tunes!

Airs December 24 at 11 p.m. (KSTX 89.1 FM)

A Harpist’s Christmas with Yolanda Kondonassis

America’s premiere harpist, Yolanda Kondonassis, celebrates the season with treasures of Christmas harp music. Yolanda has custom-created this program for American Public Media listeners, spotlighting her heavenly instrument alone and with Joshua Smith, flute and Cynthia Phelps, viola—two of America’s top professionals.

Airs December 25 at 9 a.m. (KPAC 88.3 FM & KTXI 90.1 FM)

Jonathan Winters' A Christmas Carol

An updated version of a public radio tradition hosted by NPR's Lisa Simeone. Master comedian Jonathan Winters presents a distinctive reading of Dickens' holiday classic, with a special performing edition prepared by Dickens for his own presentations. Also featuring Mimi Kennedy.

Airs December 25 at noon (KSTX 89.1 FM)

Cantus: All is Calm

An uplifting musical drama about the surprising 1914 World War I Christmas Truce. Cantus, one of America's most accomplished male choirs, and Theater Latté Da have created a profoundly moving new work of musical radio theater. Using the diary entries of soldiers and beautiful new arrangements of Christmas favorites, All is Calm tells both sides of the story, as men who had been trying to kill each other in the fields of France, spontaneously put down their guns, walked across no-man's land, and sang together. All is Calm is by Peter Rothstein with musical arrangements by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach.

Airs December 25 at 7 p.m. (KSTX 89.1 FM)

Toast of the Nation

Count down to 2009 this New Year's Eve with live jazz on Toast of the Nation. Party with live music from coast to coast, from a Sonicbloom in Boston to a Pink Martini in Los Angeles, from ribs and Mingus in New York to black-eyes peas and a licorice stick in New Orleans, Toast of the Nation presents live music with four midnights!

Airs December 31 at 7 p.m. (KSTX 89.1 FM)

New Year's Day from Vienna 2009

Join us on New Year's Day 2009, for a sparkling celebration, live from the Golden Hall at the Musikverein in Vienna. The Vienna Philharmonic presents its annual New Year’s Day from Vienna, including your favorite waltzes and polkas, and so much more, all conducted by Argentinean-Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim. New Year's Day from Vienna 2009 is presented by NPR and WGBH Boston.

Airs January 1 at 10 a.m. (KPAC 88.3 FM)