Christmas Through the Years in Chicago
The end of the year is always a time for reminiscing. These podcasts are based on the long-running radio series I used to do in Chicago. They are called Christmas Past and concern the news, the music and the sweetness of Christmastimes in the past.
Listen on:
Episodes
Thursday Dec 11, 2025
Thursday Dec 11, 2025
The Bears, with their newly signed superstar, have a game where it's warmer; federal agents are called on the carpet for the way they're enforcing prohibition; Billy Sunday and the Ziegfeld Follies!
Tuesday Dec 09, 2025
Tuesday Dec 09, 2025
A Santa Claus parade! A benefit and then another benefit. Charles Lindbergh and family spend the holiday aboard a ship. "Your Hit Parade" is new on the radio.
Saturday Dec 06, 2025
Saturday Dec 06, 2025
The phrase "peace on Earth" had a special meaning in December, 1945. Tens of thousands of service men and women were returning home after the end of World War II. This caused a big transportation headache in Chicago. Jack Benny and his butler Rochester were preparing a special holiday dinner for Ronald and Bonita Coleman,
Thursday Dec 04, 2025
Thursday Dec 04, 2025
The Montgomery bus boycott, caroling at the White House and at Union Station, rock and roll is here; but so is "Sixteen Tons"; the cost of living was up just 0.1% which meant the average factory worker's pay rose 80 cents to $72.85 per week.
Tuesday Dec 02, 2025
Tuesday Dec 02, 2025
A weather nightmare in Chicago, Vietnam and civil rights protests; businessmen ask 'what can we do with these new computer things?' and James Brown feels good.
Sunday Nov 30, 2025
Sunday Nov 30, 2025
Vietnamese children have their first meeting with Santa Claus; and names in the news include Jane Byrne, Norman Swenson, Barry Manilow and Carlos the Jackal.
Saturday Nov 29, 2025
Saturday Nov 29, 2025
Kindness was spreading across Chicagoland, according to the Tribune. The city was in a good mood because the Bears were 15-1 and almost everybody was singing "The Super Bowl Shuffle." Mayor Washington snuck away from his office to play Santa for hospitalized children, and many of us waited to find out what was in Al Capone's vault.
Thursday Nov 27, 2025
Thursday Nov 27, 2025
A run on all things Marshall Field's as the iconic department store gets new ownership; the Bears play the Packers as the Mayor ponders the possibility of getting a new team in Chicago, and a pair of newly-born babies turn up in a Chicago chufch.
Sunday Nov 02, 2025
Sunday Nov 02, 2025
The war in Europe is only months old, and German civilians are feeling the effects. New transportation systems are on the drawing board for Los Angeles and Chicago. Hollywood is out with two of the most vaunted motion pictures of the 20th century.
Wednesday Jul 02, 2025
Wednesday Jul 02, 2025
A partial government shutdown makes for a dismal Christmas for thousands of federal workers; the ownership of the Bears and the city of Chicago were at-odds over plans for renovating Soldier Field, so some other proposals were flying about; a new musical about the original Christmas Tree Ship was on stage; and the American Journal of Psychoanalysis was out with an unflattering report about the main character in a beloved Christmas movie.