Snow in Princeton for the first day of winter!

I don’t know what conditions are like where you are, but I expect, if you celebrate, your adrenaline is already up, as you prepare for a last-minute dash to the stores, a little surreptitious gift-wrapping, some early baking, or perhaps already receiving family.

This week on “Sweetness and Light,” we’ll stick to the basics, with an hour of music inspired by familiar Christmas carols and traditional Christmas songs.

In the former category, we’ll hear works by Philip Lane, Benjamin Britten, and Rick Sowash. Then we’ll enjoy selections from a favorite Christmas album of mine, “Old Christmas Return’d,” from 1992, featuring early music performances by the York Waits. Some of these Christmas melodies have been around for an awfully long time!

In between, we’ll hear an original carol by John Rutter – now SIR John Rutter – unbelievably, composed all the way back in 1972. I remember when it was a fairly new piece!

None of us are getting any younger. Recollect the holidays of your misspent youth with an hour of traditional carols for Christmas, on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST, now in syndication on KWAX the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Stream it wherever you are at the link:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/