"Chicago Christmas" is an annual favorite and a holiday tradition at WBBM Newsradio 780. Written by WBBM Morning Editor Jim Benes, "Chicago Christmas" offers a snapshot of the news headlines, top entertainment and details of daily life that defined holiday time in years past. You can read more about Chicago's Christmases for every year of the 20th Century on through the beginning of the 21st in Jim's book Season of Joy: Chicago Celebrates the Holidays
Chicago Christmas Series
Chicago Christmas 1979
WBBM's Jim Benes takes a look back at Chicago's Christmas of 1979. The hostages in Iran, no pay for teachers, the Pina Colada Song.
Chicago Christmas 1939
WBBM's Jim Benes looks back at Chicago's Christmas of 1939. Lights on for Christmas Eve, and Kay Kyser.
Chicago Christmas 1949
WBBM's Jim Benes looks back at Chicago's Christmas of 1949. Tire chains, TV sets, and a 'Sleigh Ride'.
Chicago Christmas 1959
WBBM's Jim Benes takes a look back at Chicago's Christmas of 1959. 8 inches of snow, a gangland murder, and "The Music Man".
Chicago Christmas 1989
WBBM's Jim Benes takes a look at Chicago's Christmas of 1989. Romanians celebrate in Daley Plaza, and an anomymous Christmas gift.
Chicago Christmas 1999
WBBM's Jim Benes takes a look at Chicago's Christmas of 1999. Y2K, Rosie O'Donnell and anything Pokemon.
Chicago Christmas 1969
WBBM's Jim Benes looks back at Chicago's Christmas of 1969. It was a snowy, snowy Yule.
Chicago Christmas 1948
WBBM's Jim Benes takes a look back at the Christmas of 1948. Controversy over a play and Jack Benny goes Christmas shopping.
Chicago Christmas 1958
A very sad Christmas that year, made perhaps a bit brighter by some audio chipmunks. WBBM's Jim Benes takes a look back.
Chicago Christmas 1968
WBBM's Jim Benes takes at look at Chicago's Christmas 1968 when the Earth received a message from a quarter of a million miles away.
Chicago Christmas 1978
WBBM's Jim Benes looks back at the Christmas of 1978: the Gacy murder mystery unfolds, and the latest in consumer electronics.
Chicago Christmas 1988
WBBM's Jim Benes looks back at the Christmas of 1988: Lockerbie, an Uptown fire and Mannheim Steamroller.
Chicago Christmas 1998
A Chicago lawyer rents a school bus to take his nieces and nephews Christmas shopping. WBBM's Jim Benes looks at Chicago Christmas 1998.
Chicago Christmas 1927
The Christmas morning blues and Al Capone makes a donation. WBBM's Jim Benes looks at Chicago Christmas 1927.
Chicago Christmas 1937
There's a controversy over gambling in Chicago, we're listening to Tommy Dorsey's band and using the new Kodak Brownie camera.
Chicago Christmas 1947
Fred Waring, debate over the Marshall Plan and Jack Benny on the radio. WBBM's Jim Benes take a look at Chicago Christmas 1947.
Chicago Christmas 1957
Sputnik and the Cold War, Elvis gets drafted and Red Skelton on TV. WBBM’s Jim Benes looks at Chicago Christmas 1957.
Chicago Christmas 1967
Winter comes in with a vengeance; dissent over the war in Vietnam; and something brand new, the microwave oven. WBBM's Jim Benes looks back at Chicago Christmas 1967.
Chicago Christmas 1997
Chris Farley, Princess Diana, a black market for toys, and fruitcakes. WBBM's Jim Benes take a look back at Chicago Christmas 1997.
Chicago Christmas 1977
A suggestion to demolish Soldier Field, unhappy CTA bus drivers and new computerized gadgets under the tree. WBBM’s Jim Benes looks at Chicago Christmas 1977.
Chicago Christmas 1987
Free speech on Daley Plaza, a new offering from the Boston Pops and power plant workers' lunches test as radioactive. WBBM's Jim Benes looks at Chicago Christmas 1987.
Archive -- Chicago Christmas Past
WBBM's Jim Benes, in this annual favorite series, looks at Chicago's Christmases past.
Chicago Christmas 1996
Picture-postcard perfect, black market Tickle Me Elmos, and the Christmas macarena. WBBM's Jim Benes looks at "Chicago Christmas" 1996.
Chicago Christmas 1986
Iran-Contra; aviation history with the Voyager flight; "Walk Like an Egyptian" #1 song in America; most Chicagoans favor building new stadiums for the Bears and White Sox and for putting lights in Wrigley Field; fun stuff under the Christmas tree. WBBM's
Chicago Christmas 1976
Christmas 1976 was a sad one. A fire killed 12, 10 of them children, in Pilsen. It followed the death that week of Mayor Richard J Daley. And, it was the year of one of the first video games: Pong.
Chicago Christmas 1966
A Christmas concerned about Vietnam, including a soldier's lament in song; Republican businessmen urge Richard J. Daley to run for another term as mayor. WBBM's Jim Benes tells us about Chicago Christmas 1966.
Chicago Christmas 1956
Chicago welcomes Hungarian refugees, the Bears look forward to a championship game, and Lucy was the most popular person on TV.
Chicago Christmas 1946
In politics, slatemakers dump the incumbent mayor; "It's a Wonderful Life" opens at the Grand Theater; Nat King Cole's "Christmas Song" debuts. WBBM's Jim Benes looks at Christmas in Chicago 1946.
Chicago Christmas 1936
A warm rainy Christmas, the King of England abdicates, the people of the Twentieth Century Limited make it a nice Christmas for a little Indiana girl. WBBM's Jim Benes looks at Christmas in Chicago 1936.
Chicago Christmas Podcast
WBBM's Jim Benes, in this annual favorite series, looks at Chicago's Christmases past.
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