Texas Public Radio celebrates the season with holiday programming to get you into the spirit, or simply offer a moment of reflection. Join us on KPAC 88.3 FM, KSTX 89.1 FM, and all of TPR's stations for a cornucopia of programs, including music, spoken word, and more. This page will be updated as shows are added to the lineup.
Thanksgiving
TPR News Stations, including KSTX 89.1 FM
Turkey Confidential, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Turkey Confidential is The Splendid Table’s annual Thanksgiving show. Francis Lam takes calls and comes to the rescue of Thanksgiving cooks, kitchen helpers, and dinner guests during the biggest cooking day of the year.
This year's guests include:
- Melissa Clark, Best-selling cookbook author and food columnist for The New York Times. Her latest book is The Big Book of Dinner
- Ayesha Nurdjaja, Award-winning TV personality, chef, and author of Mediterranean All The Way, Bold Flavors, Built to Share: A Cookbook
- Monti Carlo, TV personality and author of Spanglish, Recipes & Stories.
- J. Kenji López-Alt, Food Journalist and best-selling author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science
KPAC 88.3 FM
1 p.m. Songs of Thanks: Join us for "Songs of Thanks," by Cantus. Through their signature narrative programming, the acclaimed octet will weave together stories and songs celebrating gratitude and community. The program features newly commissioned work from composer Stacey V. Gibbs to help build your Thanksgiving songbook.
2 p.m. River Cary Me Home: Thanksgiving with the American Sound (APM): Rivers are special, many even considered sacred. They carry rain from fields and replenish the sea. They wander as watery conduits from one point to another, sometimes even between exile and home. Like rivers, our lives, too, are wandering—and as the 17th-century Japanese wandering poet Bashō wrote, the journey itself is home. As we gather with family and friends this Thanksgiving, enjoy an hour of music that reaches the heart of what it means to wander through the world like a river carving its course, and what it means to come home.
Hanukkah
Sunday, December 6
Hanukkah Lights – airs on TPR News stations at 3 p.m.
The NPR favorite returns with new Hanukkah stories plus gems from the archive. Hosted by Murray Horwitz, the program features original holiday fiction, cultural reflections, and classic stories.
Monday, December 7
Candles Burning Brightly – airs on KPAC 88.3 FM, and KTPR 89.9 FM, 4 p.m.
A delightful hour of new programming for everyone to celebrate the Jewish Festival of Lights! Lots of music from Jewish communities around the world, that brings light into every home.
Christmas on TPR News stations:
Thursday, Dec. 24
10 p.m. Big Tiny Desk Special: "Celebrate the season with amazing holiday performances from The Tiny Desk Concert series including Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Steve Martin, Hanson, The Polyphonic Spree and more! Hosted by NPR Music frenemies Bob Boilen and Stephen Thompson." The special is a curated audio retrospective celebrating years of festive, stripped-down performances recorded behind the iconic desk.
11 p.m. Peabo’s 26th Anniversary Christmas Eve Special: Having overcome his quarter-life crisis last year, Peabo the rooster is joined by TPR's Nathan Cone and his pal David Furst to produce a Christmas Eve special full of holiday music. Tune in to find out what kind of wild adventure the bird takes us on this year!
Classical Christmas specials on KPAC 88.3 FM and KTPR 89.9 FM
Monday, Dec. 21, 3 p.m.
Hearth: Christmas with the Miro Quartet: Gather 'round the fire with Austin's award-winning Miro Quartet and Performance Today host Valerie Kahler for an hour of cozy memories and inventively re-imagined music for the season.
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, December 24, 9 a.m. — 11 a.m.
An annual and beloved Christmas tradition since 1928, the Christmas Eve broadcast of “A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols” is an extraordinary and memorable service of word and music from the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, England.
Share in a live, world-wide Christmas Eve broadcast of a service of Biblical readings, carols, and related seasonal music (anthems a cappella and with organ accompaniment, and congregational hymns), presented by one of the world’s foremost choirs of men and boys and performed in an acoustically and architecturally renowned venue.
Wednesday, December 25, 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. — St. Olaf Christmas Festival
O MORNING STAR, O RADIANT LOVE: A service in song and word that has become one of the nation’s most cherished holiday celebrations. The festival includes hymns, carols, choral works, as well as orchestral selections celebrating the Nativity and featuring more than 500 student musicians in five choirs and the St. Olaf Orchestra.
New Year’s Day
Friday, January 1, 10 a.m. - noon on KPAC 88.3 FM — New Year’s Day from Vienna
The Vienna Philharmonic presents its ever-popular annual New Year's Day concert from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna with Maestro Tugan Sokhiev, marking his debut in this role. The program features traditional Johann Strauss family repertoire, pieces commemorating the 200th birth anniversary of Josef Strauss, and the first-ever inclusion of a work by French composer Cécile Chaminade, alongside guest performances by the Vienna Girls' Choir.
