I've had terrible luck in the ocean. Every time I try, a wave wipes me out and I feel like I'm drowning. More than one person has told me, "But that's the FUN part!"

It's holiday crunch time, and in a out-of-the-way workshop a merry craftspeople are hard at work stitching journals and stamping the covers of holiday cards for the busiest season on record.

Rankin and Bass' 1970 masterwork "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town," an origin myth for Santa, is almost as Jewish thematically as the annual Chabad telethon.

A perfect storm of coincidences made the 1992 movie — the only Batman film to take place during Christmas — appear to some as an anti-semitic allegory.

It was all too much for the rustic, pious Monsieur Taurin. Such pagan sensuality had to be diabolical. He used his pickax to rake the priceless pieces into a sack.

Charles Solomon finds a great anime series that turns the Satan story on its head: "The Devil Is a Part-Timer" puts Satan in an apron.

A Christmas Carol Redux offers something for everyone. For traditionalists, there's the full broadast of the classic Lionel Barrymore edition. For those who prefer a thoughtful - and challenging - version, we bring you "A Christmas Golem," which points out Dickens' anti-Semitism. For fun, Sue Scott performs a short piece about a competitive Christmas Carol.

Artist Don Bachardy: the Isherwood connection helped him become one of America's most sought-after portrait artist. New book has dozens of Hollywood faces.

Where else will you find Rachel Bloom, Larry Mantle, Salman Rushdie, and Sylvia Poggioli rendering Clement Moore's "A Visit from St Nicholas" for your ears?

KPCC news editor Oscar Garza may hate Jose Feliciano’s song, but he's found versions you never knew existed, from metal to reggae to "The Wiggles."