Wherever you are around the world, from New Hampshire to New South Wales, Quebec City to Kuala Lumpur, we wish you the merriest this December 25th. As you know, the Covid and our governments' response to it has put a crimp in everybody's Christmas. Still, Mark did his best to come up with a Mark Steyn Kinda Christmas Show. He was live on GB News, but there wasn't much in the way of news in sight, so he relaxed into Yuletide with old friends Randy and Tal Bachman on hand for some live performances of seasonal favorites. Click below to watch:
Emma Kershaw, who can be seen briefly above with Tim Rice, can also be heard in this year's SteynOnline Christmas audio presentation - along with Anthony Kearns and Tal Bachman:
CHRISTMAS EVE LESSONS AND CAROLS
with Mark and his guests
Thank you for your many kind comments about the above: We may have the makings of a new annual tradition at SteynOnline. But it should be said that Emma's renderings of "Away in a Manger" and "The First Noël" are especially lovely.
For a different kind of Christmas music, here's Mark talking to the composer/lyricist Hugh Martin about one of the loveliest ballads in the seasonal songbook:
HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS
Steyn's Serenade Song of the Week
(Mark's latest seasonal Song of the Week airs on Serenade Radio at 5.30pm GMT/12.30pm Eastern on Boxing Day. You can listen from anywhere on the planet here.)
From our Sinatra centennial observances six years ago, here's half a century of festive Frank:
If you like your rhymes without tunes, this Christmas we have a new entry to Mark's anthology of video poetry (because, at Yuletide as at any other time, video poetry is where the big bucks are):
THE OXEN
by Thomas Hardy
It's become a tradition each December at SteynOnline to offer Christmas editions of our Tales for Our Time audio adventures. Click below to hear Mark reading Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Conan Doyle, O Henry, Jack London, Lucy Maud Montgomery ...and some fellow called Steyn:
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
The Little Christmas Tree
by Mark Steyn
Little Women at Christmas
by Louisa May Alcott
All the World Is Wandering in the Wood
by Stephen Leacock
The Gift of the Magi
by O Henry
A Klondike Christmas
by Jack London
Christmas at Green Gables ...and Beyond
by L M Montgomery
A Merrie Old Christmas
by Washington Irving
Do you like detective fiction with a seasonal twist? Steyn has a couple of Christmas whodunnits for you:
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Queen's Square
by Dorothy L Sayers
And, if all that still leaves you with time on your hands, click on the links below for a cornucopia of Yuletide delights from the Santa Steyn grotto - carols and lessons, movies and memories:
THE PERFECT "PERFECT CHRISTMAS" BOOK
and of course...
BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE
Rick McGinnis will be here later today with a Christmas movie selection, and Mark will be back tomorrow with a live Boxing Day Bonanza starting at 7pm GMT/2pm North American Eastern. Don't miss it!