On this shortest day, as the warg Sköll, descendent of unruly Fenrir, chases down the sun, we’ll boldly feast, game, share stories, and quaff mead. Most of all, there will bonfires – lots of bonfires. This Thursday morning on WPRB, we’ll anticipate the arrival of winter (at 11:28 EST) by cutting mistletoe, decking the halls, and filling the air waves with festive and reflective music for the solstice.

Heathen impulses will be tempered by a couple of large-scale, more-or-less Christian choral works. In the 7:00 hour, we’ll hear “The Star of Bethlehem,” by everyone’s favorite composer from Lichtenstein, Josef Rheinberger, in a performance featuring Rita Streich and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Then at 9:00, we’ll enjoy “Bethlehem,” by English composer Rutland Boughton, a work inspired by the 14th century Coventry Mystery Play. How else to incorporate Merlin into the Christmas story?

There will also be plenty of Swedish folk high jinks, a shape-shifting, vampiric reindeer from Lapland, a serenade or two to the Boar’s Head from Great Britain, and abundant selections from “The Christmas Revels.”

Get ready to sacrifice five hours to the Yule gods, even as we celebrate the arrival of the Baby Jesus, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. I think Yule love it, on Classic Ross Amico.