Stories by Daniel Hautzinger

From dogs in sweaters offering each other gifts to "Dickensian Christmas" scenes to personalized illustrations of graphic design and avant-garde art, the holiday cards in the Chicago History Museum's collection showcase a broad array of styles, and reveal how similar we are to people of the past.

The premiere date of season three of Sanditon has been announced, as well as that this season will wrap up all the stories and be the last of the Jane Austen adaptation. Meet a few of the new characters who will appear in the seaside resort town this season.

At the holidays, Klein's Bakery & Cafe offers two Venezuelan must-haves for Christmas: the tamale-like hallacas, and pan de jamón. Hallacas are typically made as part of a big family in Venezuela, but Klein's helps immigrants have a taste of their traditional holiday experience even in Chicago.

Seventy years ago, the New Yorker writer and New York City native A.J. Liebling published a series of articles about Chicago that saw the city as a "not-quite-metropolis" imbued with a "collective sense of disappointment." Was he right?

The U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol is holding its next public hearing on Monday, December 19 at 12:00 pm CT.

"I am an American, Chicago born," Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March famously begins. Watch Bellow discuss winning the Nobel Prize and the sudden overwhelming media attention it brought in a segment from a 1977 WTTW show.

Traditionally served at celebratory occasions such as weddings—or, perhaps, upset victories in the World Cup by the Moroccan national football team—the Moroccan dish chicken bastilla is an elaborate pie containing stewed chicken, eggs, and almond paste. Try a recipe from Chicago's Shokran restaurant.

Morocco won a group containing the second- and third-place finishers in the last World Cup and then defeated the heavyweight Spain in the first knockout round of the 2022 World Cup. Khalid Kamal, the owner of the Moroccan restaurant Shokran, is rooting from them from afar, along with his family back in Morocco.

A new season of Vienna Blood premieres on WTTW and PBS in January, and we have a sneak peek featuring comments from some of the stars of the show, as well as its writer and director. 

The nights are long, the air is crisp, holiday lights are up: it's time to snuggle into your home with a mug of cocoa, a cookie, and some joyful holiday specials.

As the end of year Swedish holiday St. Lucia's Day approaches, try a not-too-sweet, nuanced Swedish cinnamon bun whose dough is spiced with cardamom. This America's Test Kitchen version of the recipe utilizes a technique from East Asia that keeps the dough moist and light but not sticky.

We've got everything from concerts to food specials to a new Call the Midwife special, so we suggest you take a look at our schedule and fit in some cozy viewings amidst all your shopping, gatherings, and other activities.

December is holiday season, and we've got a Mary Berry-palooza of festive specials to help you celebrate, along with a slate of Chicago-related documentaries on a Nobel Prize winner, education and gentrification, and an architect, plus more.

Eliza Scarlet of Miss Scarlet and the Duke may be fictional, but she does have a few real-life historical analogues of trailblazing female detectives and forensics experts, including in Chicago. 

A Beef Wellington is a great dish for the holidays: impressive as the centerpiece of a feast, filling and able to sate plenty of people, involved in a fun way, and an uncommon dish—when's the last time you ate it? Plus, you don't have to do it all in one day.