The Takeaway begins the holiday season with a week-long "Remixing the Holidays" series. All week long, we’ll be talking with musicians, music lovers, writers, and you, our listeners, about the best songs of the season. Jon Solomon, a DJ who hosts an annual 24-hour Christmas show on Princeton University's WPRB gives us his best and worst Christmas music of the year.

One shining moment, you reached for the sky.... When you hear the song "One Shining Moment," how do you feel?  Loved by some and hated by others, the emotional anthem has wrapped up the NCAA basketball championship for 25 years. Where do you stand on “One Shining Moment”? And what is it about sports that so often inspire divisive songs? Jon Solomon has his opinions on the matter. A college basketball journalist for Princetonbaskeball.com, he’s also a DJ at WPRB – Princeton.

23 years ago, preparing for what I did not know then would be the first in an annual series of holiday music marathons, my teenaged plans were two-fold: 

• Stay on the air as long as I could or until the next DJ showed in the morning.
• Play all the Christmas records in 103.3 fm WPRB’s meager collection alongside the lonnnnnnnnnngest songs I knew (Hello, “Sister Ray!” How have you been, “Marquee Moon”?).

Over two decades later, those Tiny Tim-style crutches are no longer necessary, and I’m allowed to be considerably selective as to what songs end up a part of that year’s marathon playlist.

It’s the week before Christmas, and as usual, we’re celebrating with our annual “Remixing the Holidays” series. All week long, we’ll be talking with musicians, music lovers, writers, and you, our listeners, about the best songs of the season. We kick things off with Jon Solomon. For over twenty years, Jon — who is Jewish, by the way — has been hosting Princeton University's 24-hour Christmas special on WPRB.

The Twin Peaks cast sings "The Twelve Days of Christmas," Charlie Brown gets remixed...and more! We kick off our week-long "Remixing the Holidays" series with the best and worst Christmas music as selected by Jon Solomon, a DJ who's hosted a 24-hour Christmas show for each of the last 20 years.