Holidays & Religion: Listening List

With the holidays approaching, let’s hear the history of those holidays, some quirky family holiday stories, and how some people are caught between two worlds. Thanks to Chicago PBClubber, Lisa, and Twitter friend, @saralistens, for choosing the listenings for this month:

Backstory: Naughty & Nice. BackStory brings historical perspective to the events happening around us today. On each show, renowned U.S. historians Ed Ayers, Peter Onuf, and Brian Balogh tear a topic from the headlines and plumb its historical depths. In the “Naughty & Nice” Brian, Peter, and Ed explore the fascinating history of the “holiday season” in America. Has Christmas grown more or less religious? How has the holiday evolved and changed here? To what extent was Hanukkah a reaction to Christmas? And how have American Jews shaped and reshaped their own wintertime rituals?

This American Life: Lights, Camera, Christmas! This is an episode from 2012 that is filled with stories of people going to great lengths to throw a special Christmas for their families. Including tales of Luna the guinea pig (pictured), Bambi the reindeer, and Jeko the super-powerful (and somewhat-scary) Christmas elf.

Latino USA: Ay Vey! Being Jewish and Latino. This episode explores the history of Jewish migration throughout the Americas, and hear personal stories of family and identity from Jewish Latinos themselves.