Holiday Hurdles

Selected Shorts

Symphony Space

Arts, Fiction, Books, Society & Culture

4.4 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2023

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Guest host David Sedaris presents stories that reimagine holiday rituals. In Tobias Wolff’s “Powder,” a pre-Christmas snowstorm provides an adventure for a father and son. SELECTED SHORTS’ late host and founder Isaiah Sheffer is the reader. A long-established couple turn out to be able to surprise one another in Allegra Goodman’s gentle borrowing from an O. Henry classic. Dana Ivey and Michael Cerveris read her “Gifts of the Jewish Magi.” And David Sedaris says English writer Jeanette Winterson captures the city to a “T” in “Christmas in New York,” a modern fairy tale with just a hint of magic, performed by Richard Masur.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Meg Walitzer. I love the holidays, all of them. Trim the tree, polish the
0:05.8	manure, find those presents. I love the chance to see family and friends, exchange
0:10.9	recipes, and spend a lot of time at the kitchen table, all of which means
0:15.0	I'm a little busy, so I'm handing this week's show over to another busy writer, David Sedaris.
0:20.8	I'll be back next year and hope you will too.
0:25.0	Outside on the sidewalk there were people laughing arm and arm holding their faces up to the falling snow.
0:38.0	What's the big deal? Snow's just rain that's been left out in the cold.
0:46.0	This week on selected shorts, Christmas magic.
0:49.0	Like it or not.
0:50.0	I'm David Sedaris and you're listening to Selected Charts, the program that brings you great
0:56.0	short fiction read live on stage at Symphony Space in New York City.
1:03.4	In this episode of selected shorts, we hear stories about people ready to defy the usual holiday
1:09.3	protocols.
1:10.9	These protagonists seek to create their own wintering magic, though they might get waylaid,
1:16.3	by ice on the interstate or price tags on presence, they also come out with new ways to appreciate
1:22.3	the season.
1:24.0	The joy of Christmas is that it's a family holiday,
1:27.0	and the sorrow is that families shift.
1:29.0	Parents divorce, people die or wander off.
1:33.0	Empty spaces are left at the table,
1:35.0	and those of us remaining are frequently having to,
1:38.0	in the words of my favorite Carol,
	...

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