Anybody who has ever had to endure yet another Nutcracker or A Christmas Carol or some other form of holiday programming castor oil can be forgiven for having yet another reason to dread this supposedly most wonderful time of the year. Enduring seasonal Christmas/holiday entertainments can feel like hell, or a very convincing approximation of it right here on earth. Fortunately for Baltimoreans with a hankering to partake of seasonal festivities, right now there are two productions that not only don’t suck, but make holiday shows genuinely entertaining.

Since debuting its first-ever live-radio play in summer 2009, the Stoop Storytellers gang has become quite adept at making a sound program intended for radio broadcast visually engaging. And for O Little Town of Baltimore: A Holiday Live Radio Show, Stoop—founders Jessica Henkin and Laura Wexler, aided by host Aaron Henkin, radio players Prescott Gaylord, Fred Lohr, Heather Moyer, Micheline McManus, and Catharine Robertson, house band ellen cherry, and sound effects man Ron Spencer—wraps up a big, sloppy kiss to the holidays free from artificial sentiment, recycled reminders about what the Christmas spirit really is, and other claptrap that was turned into commercialized nonsense decades ago. Basically, O Little Town knows that sometimes all you need to find that special Christmas spirit is a can of Natty Boh.

Or a stash of some really killer kind bud. Radio skits in this program include satiric odes to the joy of holiday travel (having to rent a car called the “Soul Crusher XE”), being a kid sledding down that legendary hill that has anecdotally claimed lives, a woman gifting a baby high-end luxury goods (jewelry, a Louis Vuitton bag, a Jaguar—because “baby likes kitties”), and a tube-pulling Santa who has his buzz killed when his elves’ labor union rep shows him the horrible working conditions around his toy factory. (Aaron Henkin says the production includes many different skits to make each performance a unique experience.) Sure, this form of comedy is very much public-radio wit, but Stoop gives it enough ridiculousness and local flavor—such as a skit about Ray Lewis and his special second-half socks—to make the interludes fun. Throw in some musical performances—from cherry, who delivered a lovely version of Robert Earl Keen’s “Merry Christmas from the Family” (“Of course he brought his new wife, Kay/ who talks all about AA/ chain smoking while the stereo plays/ Noel, Noel, the First Noel”) at Sunday’s matinee, Dundalk barbershop quartet BSQ, and local Nepalese pop sensation Prem Raja Mahat—and O Little Town offers a nice amuse-bouche of slightly different holiday fare.

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