Celebrate the season with holiday special programming on KSUT
Happy Holidays from all of us at KSUT!
Join us for a season of special programming. Hear favorites like Paul Winter Solstice, A Christmas Carol w/ Patrick Stewart, Mark O’Connor’s Appalachian Christmas, Toast of the Nation, and more.
Here's a handy guide to our full programming lineup. Select the buttons to jump to a particular day.
Sunday December 21 (Winter Solstice)
7 p.m. - Paul Winter Solstice Concert
8 p.m. - An Echoes Winter Solstice
Selected program descriptions
7 p.m.
Paul Winter Solstice Concert
Celebrate the return of the sun with an encore performance recorded in the world’s largest Gothic cathedral. Musicians include Noel Paul Stookey, also known as Paul from the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. The Paul Winter Consort Winter Solstice Celebration (its official full title) also featured old friends like gospel singer Theresa Thomason and the Forces of Nature dance and drumming troupe from Harlem. WNYC's John Schaefer hosts.
8 p.m.
An Echoes Winter Solstice
Get ready for the big chill on an Echoes Winter Solstice. Echoes' John Diliberto creates a soundscape of snow-shrouded trees, silent saguaro cactus and white out conditions. It's a winter fantasy with no Christmas Carols, but a sleigh-full of music taking you into the celestial and chilled side of the season.
Monday, December 22
7 p.m. - Down Home Girl Holiday Show
9 p.m. - A Celtic Christmas
10 p.m. - An Echoes Seasonal Soundscape
Selected program descriptions
9 p.m.
A Celtic Christmas
This holiday special features Irish storyteller Tomáseen Foley and his charming tale "Parcel from America." The program also features music from guitarist William Coulter, fiddler Deby Benton Grojean, and piper Todd Denman, as well as songs from Moira Smiley.
10 p.m.
An Echoes Seasonal Soundscape
In an all-instrumental program, we create a soundscape for the season. We play music inspired by the season in all its quiet majesty and interior warmth. Original songs mix with carols from artists like David Arkenstone, George Winston, Ólafur Arnalds, Erik Wøllo and many more. We weave these sounds into a seamless journey for that pause just before Christmas.
Tuesday, December 23
7 p.m. - Barrelhouse Blues Holiday Show
9 p.m. - Jazz Night in America - A Blue (Note) Christmas w/ Don Was
10 p.m. - Sonic Seasonings Classic
Selected program descriptions
9 p.m.
Jazz Night In America – A Blue (Note) Christmas
A holiday hour from Blue Note Records, curated by Don Was, a musician and producer known for his Don Was digs into the Blue Note Records vault for a different kind of Christmas playlist, pulling rare cuts, deep grooves, and holiday classics from across the label’s history, all personally curated and introduced by Was himself, with music by Norah Jones, Horace Silver, and others.
10 p.m
Sonic Seasonings Classic
Sonic Seasonings Classic, featuring live performances of holiday music by Will Ackerman & Friends, and the California Guitar Trio. In 2013, a collection of veteran musicians and one icon gathered in Imaginary Road Studio in Vermont, the home of Windham Hill Records founder and guitarist Will Ackerman. Will was joined by oboist Jill Haley, famed for her National Parks record series; her husband, Grammy-award winning guitarist David Cullen; pianist Kori Linae Carothers; trumpeter Jeff Oster; and former-Bob Dylan violinist Scarlet Rivera. They mixed and matched personnel for performances of seasonal songs and originals.
Wednesday, December 24 (Christmas Eve)
7 p.m. - Tales of the New West Holiday Show
9 p.m. - A Christmas Carol w/ Patrick Stewart
11 p.m. - An Echoes Night Before Christmas
Selected program descriptions
9 p.m.
A Christmas Carol w/ Patrick Stewart
Patrick Stewart presents a distinctive reading of Dickens’ holiday classic.
11 p.m
An Echoes Night Before Christmas
Get the sugar plums dancing with an Echoes Night Before Christmas. It’s a time when life seems suspended between the Christmas build-up and the explosion of Christmas morning. It’s not your shopping mall Christmas carols. We’ll hear music from the Ornamental and Dark Noel albums, Jeff Johnson’s Winterfold and Smoke Fairies’ Wild Winter, and David Arkenstone's Winterlude. John Diliberto decorates your ears with seasonal music that's cool and chilled on an Echoes Night Before Christmas.
Thursday, December 25 (Christmas Day)
9 a.m. - KSUT Christmas Morning Blend
10 a.m. - A Hip Holiday Mix with Paul Ingles
12 p.m. - Here & Now
1 p.m. - The Big Tiny Desk Concert Holiday Special
2 p.m. - A Swinging Holiday Jazz Party w/ Wynton Marsalis
3 p.m. - Mark O’Connor’s Appalachian Christmas
4 p.m. - All Things Considered
6 p.m. - Fresh Air
7 p.m. - Ike’s America Holiday Radio Show
9 p.m. - Retro Cocktail Hour Christmas Show
10 p.m. - A World Café Holiday
Selected program descriptions
10 a.m.
A Hip Holiday Mix with Paul Ingles
Music History Producer Paul Ingles hosts two hours of pop, rock and soul holiday music. Paul Simon, Otis Redding, Charles Brown, Pretenders, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Kinks, Shawn Colvin, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, Beatles, and more.
1 p.m
The Big Tiny Desk Concert Holiday 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.
2 p.m.
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.
3 p.m.
Mark O’Connor’s Appalachian Christmas
Mark O’Connor, famous bluegrass fiddler and respected American composer, leads the O’Connor Band and special guest Nancy Ives, principal cellist of the Oregon Symphony, in An Appalachian Christmas.
Wednesday, December 31 (New Year’s Eve)
7 p.m. - Tales of The New West - Best of 2025
9 p.m. to 1 a.m. - Toast of the Nation
Selected program descriptions
9 p.m.
NPR’s Toast of the Nation
Happy New Year from Toast of the Nation, your NPR New Year's Eve tradition since the 1970s. Enjoy sets from Nicole Zuraitis, Kassa Overall, Sofía Rei, Marcus Gilmore, Marshall Allen, Kokayi, Amir ElSaffar and Jack DeJohnette in George Colligan's trio.