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Christmas

What Does Christmas Mean For Artists? Lets Find Out!!!

On today’s Artist Newsday, we listened to Russ Lee and Emerson Day talk about their Christmas traditions and how God has blessed them during this season! We also talked about a fun New Years Eve special happening next Wednesday the 31st!

Russ Lee shares details on what Christmas is like for his family and the fun things they do including his favorite Christmas movies!
Emerson Day shares what’s on her Christmas list this year along with family traditions and the potential of releasing a Christmas EP in the future!
Chris Tomlin tries to be Santa for his three daughters! He shares what Christmas is like for him and yes… he listens to Christmas music before Christmas.
Matthew West shares what he loves about getting to write music for Jesus! He also talks about what he loves about Christmas!

Tune in during The Morning Thing with Traven Griffith for the best songs of 2025! He will count down the top 30 songs in Christian music to celebrate the New Year! Go to wnzr.fm for more information!

Our lyrics for this week’s song poetry was:

Did you know that your baby boy

has come to make you new?

This child that you’ve delivered

will soon deliver you

“Mary Did You Know?” by Mark Lowry! Congratulations to Denise of Mount Vernon for guessing the sone and artist correctly and taking home a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

THERE WILL BE NO AFTERNOON DRIVE 12/24 OR 12/25!!! Tune in this Friday for the NZ Top 10 with Daniel!

Thanks so much for listening!

– Gabriella Stanley 🙂

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WNZR Listeners’ Favorite Christmas Songs!

There is no NZ Top 10 this week! Instead, we took your Christmas song requests all afternoon long!

We heard requests from Darcy and Laurie for ‘Silent Night,’ Karen for ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,’ and Tracy for ‘The Christmas Shoes.’

Fun fact: Darcy shared that her grandfather used to sing ‘Silent Night’ to her in German when she was a child. Laurie also shared that her grandmother, also from Germany, used to do the same thing!

Also today, we got to ask Chris Tomlin what some of his favorite Christmas songs are!

Chris told us he loves the old hymns, like “Angels, We Have Heard on High,” and “Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel.” We got to listen to some of these during the show today! Listen to Ethan’s conversation with Chris on our Soundcloud page!

Congratulations to our winners in the WNZR Christmas Gift Exchange! Find the list here!

Thank you for listening!
– Joe and Ethan

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All of WNZR’s Brand New Christmas Music of 2025!

This year on WNZR, we have added 18 new Christmas songs, with some new originals and some remakes of the original classic Christmas songs!

Today on The Afternoon Drive, we listened to as many of them as we could! Be listening for these new songs on the Holly Jolly 25, where we listen to Christmas music all day long from December 1st all the way through Christmas!

You can view the full list of new Christmas music added to WNZR in 2025 on our website. Click here!

Here are some highlights from the show:

Tasha Layton – Christmas All Year Long

Tasha Layton’s new original Christmas song on WNZR has an incredible stop-motion music video. It’s a nod to the old stop-motion movies like Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and Jack Frost. If you like that style of movies, you’ll love this music video!

Jason Gray & Point Of Grace – Comfort and Joy

Ethan’s favorite new Christmas song from this year is Jason Gray and Point Of Grace’s song, Comfort and Joy! Their four voices blend so well in this song that takes some inspiration from God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Ethan absolutely loves the feel and the message of this song. You can listen to their song here:

Downhere – How Many Kings

While we took a look at the new songs on WNZR, we also went back in time to 2007 to visit a song from Downhere. Their song How Many Kings highlights Jesus’ humbleness as He came down to earth from Heaven, and was born as a baby into a manger– The King of the world did that for you and me, even when we didn’t deserve it. You can listen to this song and worship along here:

Next Friday on The Afternoon Drive, Joe and Ethan will check out all the incredible Christmas duets we hear on WNZR during the Holly Jolly 25! We can’t wait for you to join us for it!

Thank you for listening!
– Joe and Ethan

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We talked with Dr. Bob Tocheff about MVNU’s Advent Service!

Dr. Bob Tocheff gives us a rundown and a peek behind the curtain of MVNU’s Advent Service! This free event will be in MVNU’s Chapel Auditorium on Wednesday, December 3rd at 7:30pm! Dr. Bob reveals which choirs and performing groups will be featured at this event, as well as the repertoire the Collegians Chorale will be featuring.

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New Christmas Songs so Far for 2025 on WNZR

Here’s some new Christmas music debuting this week on WNZR!

Katy Nichole & Matt Maher – Our King Has Come

Evan Craft – Christ Is Born (Happy Birthday)

Matthew West – Dysfunctional Family Christmas

We’d love to know what you think of this song! Comment on this post and let us know if you love it or dislike it! Be completely honest! We’d love to hear your feedback on this song.

Give us an email: wnzr@mvnu.edu

We’ll have your NZ Top 10 next week! Thank you for listening!
– Ethan Hershberger

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Finding Joy in Christmas!

One would think this is easy to do. It’s the season that brings tidings of comfort and joy for crying out loud! But sometimes, in the midst of the noise and outside of distractions of Christmas, we lose sight of the true joy of the season. We can become discouraged, stressed and even saddened over what it used to mean to us.

It’s Monday Motivation on The Afternoon Drive, and we’re sharing stories of how we were reminded of what Christmas is all about. In remembering the central meaning and hope that Christmas truly symbolizes, we can be reminded of why it truly is a cause for celebration.

Name something you hang on a Christmas tree?

Survey says:

Christmas Lights: 25%

Ornaments: 23%

Angel: 10%

Tinsel: 10%

Candy Cane: 7%

Congratulations to David for naming the top two answers on the survey. He wins the $5 Gift Card to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Thanks for listening!- Judah

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Christmas stress…and how to avoid it!

Why is it that we get so stressed out around Christmas? Is it the tight finances, the holiday rush, trying to figure out what the heck to buy for your family, or all of the above. Honestly, it’s all that and more.

It’s Praise Thursday on The Afternoon Drive, and Christmas stress is almost always unavoidable. But maybe part of the problem is that we take our focus off of what Christmas is really about. The humble birth of a small child, in a quiet peaceful manger, destined to be savior and king of the world. Christmas is about the peace, joy and comfort of the Lord…not the buzz and business of everything else. But we lose sight of that so often. This Christmas, we need to remember what Christmas is really about, the light of the word: JESUS!

It’s the last day of the WNZR Christmas Gift Exchange! Congratulations to Brad from Mount Vernon and Mary from Fredericktown, they were our last two winners for the season! Tune in to The Morning Thing tomorrow at 7:30, we’ll be announcing our SEVEN grand prize winners!

Today’s track was ‘Mary Did You Know’ by Jason Crabb. Congratulations to Charla from Utica for naming the right tune! She wins the $5 Gift Card to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Thanks for listening!- Judah

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Together for a purpose!

For me, this picture from Friday’s Food For The Hungry Live says it all!

We are so grateful for your generosity of time and giving to this year’s campaign. The many faces here represent the team that helped make 2024 Food For The Hungry Live a reality on Friday. Many are MVNU students who finished their final exams, then stayed to help in the effort. Many are community board members for FFTH. There are also a couple of MVNU alums in there! We are thankful for all of them.
You can keep updated on the progress of the drive

winners today:
Kristen from Mount Vernon – won a camp mug and MVNU beanie from the Admissions Office
Maude from Mount Vernon – won a $20 Wendy’s gift card from Wendy’s of Mount Vernon

What is another name for Santa?
1. St. Nicholas or St. Nick – 60 votes
2. Kris Kringle – 29
3. Father Christmas or Papa Noel -11

Congratulations to Nancy from Fredericktown, who guessed those top two answers and wins the $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica.

Thanks for listening!
– Joe

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On the First Day of Christmas….I got what??

If you were to find one of the MANY gifts in the Christmas classic, “12 Days of Christmas”…how would react?

It’s Who Knew Wednesday on The Afternoon Drive, and we tested your Christmas music knowledge…of the 364 presents (when you imagine getting the gifts each day), which one would you be excited about…and which one not so much? Drop your answers here! https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1126932696100191&set=a.392606606199474

Our friend Colleen shared an incredible story of God’s faithfulness with a wallet her husband’s parents gave to him…that they found four months later and had the perfect amount of money they needed! He is always faithful!

Congratulations to Bob and Kim, our Christmas Gift Exchange winners for today! They’ve both been entered into our drawing for our SEVEN GRAND PRIZE WINNERS! Keep listening for your chance to win!

Congratulations to Chris from Gambier, who guessed our two-week stumper!!

  • I was born November 27, 1701 in Uppsala, Sweden.
  • My father was an astronomy professor and my uncle was a botanist
  • I chose physics and astronomy as my areas of emphasis
  • I created a temperature scale that now bears my name
  • I originally scaled 0 degrees as boiling and 100 degrees as freezing, but that was eventually reverted
  • I also participated in an expedition to the Arctic Circle to measure the shape of the earth

It is Swedish native Anders Celsius! Chris wins two 5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica.

Thanks for listening!
– Joe and Judah

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