The holidays are typically characterized as a time for joyous celebration with family and friends. But for many Americans, the reality of the holiday season could not be any more different. Over the last twenty-five years, the scientific community has grappled with the concept of loneliness, trying to quantify its presence in society in an effort to better understand the social phenomenon. The consensus seems to be relatively straight-forward: Americans have become increasingly lonely over time.
It’s the week before Christmas, and The Takeaway is celebrating with our annual "Remixing the Holidays" series. All week long we're talking with musicians, music lovers, and you about the best, and worst, songs of the season. On Wednesday, The Takeaway spoke with Jon Solomon, a DJ who hosts an annual 24-hour Christmas show on Princeton University's WPRB. Today, we speak with Jason Segel, star of the new "Muppet Movie," as well as "How I Met Your Mother," "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," and "Freaks and Geeks."
Here's some uplifting news for the holiday season. A new study finds that in 2011 Americans were the most generous people in the world. The U.S. rose from fifth place on the "World Giving Index" in 2010 to number one this year. Ireland placed second, followed by Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain. What tipped the scale in the U.S.'s favor this year was not just monetary donations, but volunteer work and kindness to strangers.
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.
If you haven't sent out your Christmas cards yet, you might want to get on it, quick. Snail mail just got slower. The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service announced Monday that it's going to end next-day delivery of letters, postcards and other First Class mail. The agency is looking to find $20 billion in annual savings by 2015, about $3 billion of which could come from various plans to shrink the network. But what will become of the letter?
Every holiday season, many Americans feel the compulsion to shop for themselves and their loved ones. George W. Bush famously encouraged the nation to go shopping during his presidency, reminding Americans that 70 percent of the economy is derived from personal spending. This year, the economic engine went into overdrive during Black Friday and Cyber Monday; but, does that indicate signs of a looming economic recovery?
It's everywhere in the air right now — at the supermarket, the pharmacy, in elevators, and in streets of cities across the country — not good cheer, but that endless loop of holiday music. Aside from annoying cynics or providing a soundtrack to Norman Rockwell-times around the dinner table, well-worn tunes like "White Christmas" or "Here Comes Santa Clause" mostly mean big business for bands releasing Christmas albums.
Thanksgiving typically conjures images of spending time with family, savoring long meals, and watching sports. For those working at the Target corporation this year, they will remain only images. The mega-chain store has just asked many of its employees to put on their work clothes at midnight on Thanksgiving night to prepare for Black Friday shopping. However, many are not looking forward to the extra hours.
Christmas is one of the busiest days of the year for the movie industry. If you're still undecided about which movie to see, resident movie buffs Rafer Guzman and Kristen Meinzer size up "True Grit," "Little Fockers" and "The King's Speech."
Holiday dinners have another tradition that not everyone wants to celebrate: tense conversations about politics. It happened at Thanksgiving and it's likely to happen around Christmas, so we're looking at how to survive the seasonal dinner table arguments and how the issues in question have changed from last year.
Do you worry about political arguments over dinner? Do you have a strategy for surviving?
Many sounds, sights and traditions have long been hallmarks of December…from decorating a Christmas tree to the singing of carols. And at least one seasonal tradition is specific to the workplace: the holiday bonus. But where did this tradition come from? And in our current economy, will it disappear?
Today is Good Friday. Christians believe that on this day, Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross. This Easter Sunday Christians worldwide will celebrate Christ's resurrection. The Catholic Church may very well be hoping for a minor healing miracle of its own as a decades-old sex abuse scandal continues to plague church leaders in the U.S. and abroad.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) might not be the first person you think of when you think of memorable holiday ditties, but you might have heard his latest magnum opus, a Hannukah song called "Eight Days of Hannukah." Sen. Hatch has been a prolific composer for years in his spare time – from Christian rock to patriotic ballads – but calls this song his "gift to the Jewish people." (He's Mormon.) He and his co-writer, Madeline Stone, join us to talk about their favorite Christmas songs, and how to write music for faiths that aren't your own.
Eight Days of Hanukkah from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.
Music heard from our Remixing the Holidays series all this week:
Have you ever wondered why – while you’re out holiday shopping – a dress shop might play one soundtrack of Christmas songs while a hardware store might play another? Steven Pilker, manager of Muzak’s audio architecture department, knows the answers. For our continuing series, "Remixing the Holidays," Pilker explains what all the retail noise is about...and shares the three songs that must be on every holiday soundtrack, regardless of what the store sells.
With only two days until Christmas, holiday shopping has reached a fever pitch. New York Times business and finance reporter Louise Story says a new trend is sweeping holiday giving this year: customized gifts. Whether itss designing the shoes you buy for your daughter or having your old family recipes printed as a cookbook, retailers are betting that consumers will pay extra for that personalized touch. But Joel Waldfogel isn't sure. Waldfogel is the Ehrenkranz Family Professor in the Department of Business and Public Policy at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He's also the author of "Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays
Our "Remixing the Holidays" series continues with Tony Award-winning Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell, who performs with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in their 2009 television Christmas special and on the accompanying CD, "Ring Christmas Bells
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.
Getting together with one's family during holidays is a pretty natural affair. But it’s also a time when you all get together and rediscover each other’s differences ... and this can be particularly true when it comes to religious beliefs.
How you do respectfully take on those differences, particularly when your kids may have become MORE religious than you? We talk with Lisa Belkin, who writes the family and parenting blog Motherlode for our partner The New York Times, and Laurie Dinerstein-Kurs, who has some of her ten grandchildren home at big holidays.
_small_image.jpg "Serious Cookies: Shuna Fish Lydon’s Shortbread")
Every Wednesday we talk about food. In honor of everyone throwing a holiday party this year, we asked Ed Levine, founder of seriouseats.com, to give us some strategies for making affordable, easy finger food recipes for holiday parties.
Check out Ed Levine's Top 5 Holiday Party Planning Tips and his favorite recipes.
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