9 Articles About The Holidays You Should Check Out

Looking for some light Christmas Day reading material? Here’s a rundown of nine articles that speak to the holiday season we here on WPR.org recommend checking out:

• Each week on her Vintage Wisconsin blog, Wisconsin Life” producer Erika Janik explores a different facet of the state’s history through archived photos pulled from the Wisconsin Historical Society’s archives. Check out her most recent post about Christmas in Wisconsin.

• Some people will be spending the holiday season looking after a family member with a disability or someone with special needs. But as a home and family expert points out in this article written by WPR’s Christie Taylor, it’s important for such caregivers to take some time for themselves as well.

• Lots of people seem to have one difficult family member they have to deal with during holiday-time gatherings. Here are some tips laid out by WPR’s Judith Siers-Poison on ways to help manage family tensions that bubble up to the surface.

• For those who love those one-off holiday specials on television, but are a little tired of the lack of diversity therein, NPR’s Code Switch has got you covered. Check out Charles Pulliam-Moore’s “A Very Code Switch Christmas TV Special,” which includes a list of holiday specials that prominently feature people of color.

• “The Magic of Christmas Eve Goes Beyond Religion” is a short essay by author and astrophysics professor Adam Frank about encountering strangers during the holidays, and “moments of unfiltered compassion” that for him make Christmas special.

• Emily Harris, an international correspondent for NPR based in Jerusalem, writes about the unique experience an American student had celebrating Hanukkah while studying abroad in Palestine.

• Many people may be familiar with gelt as the chocolate coins handed out as treats when Hanukkah rolls around. But as Deena Prichep explains, gelt used to mean something different in centuries past.

• For college students, now is the time to pack up bags and head home to celebrate the season with family — or at least, for most college students. As Jennifer Guerra reports, there are some students who end up spending the holidays in their dorm since they don’t have a home to return to.

• The classic movie “A Christmas Story” got at least one thing right, according to U.S. eye doctors — get a BB gun for Christmas, and you could end up shooting your eye out. Check out Nancy Shute’s rundown of other toys ophthalmologists say to stay away from over the holidays.