Happy holidays! 6 festive podcasts to learn holidays’ histories, traditions, and fun facts

Whether you’re cooking up a storm, proudly wearing your ugliest Christmas sweater, trimming the tree, or just settling down for a long winter’s nap, we’ve gathered some podcasts to accompany your holiday festivities. Check out podcasts exploring holidays’ traditions and histories in addition to stories fully embracing holiday weirdness.

There are episodes unpacking winter lore, rebroadcasting vintage radio shows, and sharing the forgotten histories behind your favorite carols.

Christmas Past

Brian Earl’s “Christmas Past” is a holiday grab bag of fun facts and trivia. Hear about the history of ugly Christmas sweaters, stories behind movies like A Charlie Brown Christmas, Christmas stories from 19th century America, and more. There are episodes covering snow globes, short stories, and historical events like The Eggnog Riot. Earl will also interview guests for roundtable discussions. Check out over 200 episodes with an average run time of 40 minutes.

Weird Christmas Podcast

Craig Kringle dives into holiday weirdness, history, legends, and media around Christmas. Episodes cover true stories, and fictional tales ranging from Victorian ghost stories to an annual flash fiction contest.

Chutzpod!

“Chutzpod!” answers questions about Judaism for Jewish and non-Jewish people alike. Hosts Rabbi Shira Stutman and Joshua Malina invite guests to discuss topics like Hanukkah’s history.

Forgotten History of Our Favorite Christmas Carols

95.7 BIG FM (WRIT-FM) presents “Forgotten History of Our Favorite Christmas Carols.” Hear the stories behind holiday classics like “Deck the Halls,” “Silver Bells,” and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” – just to name a few. All episodes are under a minute long, so you might find yourself getting up-to-speed on songs’ histories super fast!

This Day in History Class

“This Day in History Class” shares historical events. On this episode, hear about the pan-African and African-American holiday Kwanzaa that was created by Maulana Karenga. It was celebrated on December 26, 1966 for the first time. Later in the episode, listeners will hear about the Scottish mathematician and scientist Mary Somerville. This podcast is brought to you by iHeartPodcasts with new episodes posted daily.

Christmas Old Time Radio

Humphrey Camardella presents “Christmas Old Time Radio,” an all-ages podcast rebroadcasting vintage radio shows from long ago. Hear 1934’s “The Christmas Stocking with Walt Disney and Friends,” “The Doris Day Show” audio from “Here Comes Santa Claus,” and more. The average length of episodes is 45 minutes long, with 100 episodes to choose from.