Like an overstuffed stocking on Christmas morning, NPR Holiday Favorites is full of unexpected pleasures and evergreen delights: David Sedaris contributes his now classic "Santaland Diaries", his account of his experiences playing Santa's little helper at Macy's in New York; Susan Stamberg sneaks her mother-in-law's recipe for cranberry relish onto the air — again; Storyteller Kevin Kling finds an invitation to participate in a production of The Nutcracker too tempting to resist; Ghanian-born commentator Meri Danquah shares her thoughts on Kwanzaa; Cowboy poet Baxter Black describes a Christmas cookie with "the denseness of an anvil and the half-life of a radial tire"; Robert Siegel goes in search of the correct spelling for December's Jewish holiday; Adam Gopnik, New Yorker writer and self-proclaimed secularist, celebrates the universal optimism inherent in Christmas; The Thanksgiving tables are turned on unsuspecting Bostonians in "When Turkeys Attack"; Commentator Claudio Sanchez reads "The Night Before Christmas", Latin Style; Steven Ivory toasts the kindness of strangers in "My Annual New Year's Quandary"; And more.

Nationally renowned broadcast journalist SUSAN STAMBERG is special correspondent for NPR. Stamberg is the first woman to anchor a national nightly news program, and has won every major award in broadcasting. She has been inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the Radio Hall of Fame.