The Next Stop 236 - December 26, 2025

Soaring through frostbitten skies, over cities and oceans, this festive winter holidays edition of the show features English composer Howard Blake's scores to "The Snowman" (1982) and "The Bear" (1998). Both aired as Christmas specials on British TV, based on the books from English author and illustrator Raymond Briggs. In the first hour we listen to soulful Santa tracks and more, and in the second we mellow out with some jazz as well as the complete 26-minute Blake piece from The Bear.

 

Secret Garden	Susumu Yokota
The Snowman Soundtrack	Howard Blake
Ole Santa	Dinah Washington
Soul Santa	Brook Benton
Back Door Santa	Clarence Carter
All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth	The Platters
Blues for the Weepers	Lou Rawls
Coldest Night of the Year (Unreleased Single As "Twice As Much and Vashti", 1966)	Vashti Bunyan
Snowstorm	Galaxie 500
Iceblink Luck	Cocteau Twins
Winter Now	Broadcast
Aurora	Björk
Season of the Shark	Yo La Tengo
The Snowman Soundtrack (Continued)	Howard Blake
Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy)	Duke Ellington
Christmas Time Is Here (Instrumental)	Vince Guaraldi Trio
Snow	Hauschka
Snow Covers Everything	Windy & Carl
Perfum for Winter	Fennesz
The Bear (Full Soundtrack)	Howard Blake