Before the advent of the Christmas and New Year double issue in 1969, it was only on the odd occasion that listings for December 25 and January 1 would be in the same issue of Radio Times.  One such occasion came in 1954, where the cover artwork shows Father Christmas greeting Father Time to celebrate the event.  At that time Radio Times normally covered the week from Sunday to Saturday, so including the preceding Saturday meant that that day appeared in two consecutive issues.

Christmas Day highlights in 1954 included Television's Christmas Party with Arthur Askey, Tommy Cooper, Petula Clark, Harry Secombe and Sooty, among others.  Her Majesty the Queen's Christmas message was at 3pm but was only carried on radio at this time, and broadcast simultaneously on the Home Service and the Light Programme.  The big variety show on Christmas night was On Stage, Coliseum, which was split into two parts, one on the Home Service with the second part on the Light - it was a programme commemorating the 50th anniversary of London's Coliseum theatre, pre-recorded at the venue.  Its stars included actress Fay Compton, and comedians Bud Flanagan, Jewell and Warriss and Ted Ray.

Radio Times often commissioned decorative borders for Christmas listings pages, and other artwork, including this evocative full-page snow scene from the 1930 festive issue. It’s not the actual front cover, but a sort of visual frontispiece before the main part of the issue, to help listeners (there weren’t very many viewers in 1930) get in the festive mood. We hope it does the same for you!

And if this inside cover has sparked your interest, you can watch this BBC Arena clip  about the art of the Radio Times magazine, as seen by illustrator Eric Fraser. 

It's the cover of the Christmas edition of Radio Times, 1956, by Monica Walker.

If you look closer, the homely scene includes a television set - a fact reiterated by the magazine's introduction to the BBC's Christmas programming:

"There was a time, we remember, when a conventional picture of Santa Claus showed an airborne sleigh, pulled by magical reindeers, coming in low over the rooftops to alight beside some gaping chimney. A brief, low-level flight round any of our cities, towns, villages, or even rural areas nowadays would, however, meet with a new and hazardous obstacle-the television aerial, be it H-shaped, X-shaped, or that other squiggly shape that sometimes appears."

The highlights of the Christmas TV programming included Pantomania or Dick Whittington, which featured many BBC personalities in cameos, and Home is the Sailor, a comedy specially written for the BBC Television Service for Christmas Day by Arthur Macrae, telling the story of a girl engaged to a sailor who "is rather too much at sea for her liking" and ends up marrying... his father.

The Duke of Edinburgh was scheduled to speak from the Royal Yacht in South Pacific waters as a prelude from the Queen's Christmas message, followed by a telerecording of the Variety Theatre of China and a direct relay of part of the Grand Circus from the Palais des Sports in Paris.

We begin our Advent Calendar with the 1966 Christmas Radio Times cover, by illustrator Gaynor Chapman.

The 1966 Christmas BBC season promised a "tremendous feast of broadcast catering for every taste and every member of the family." Christmas Eve viewing would include waiting for Santa with Val Doonican and the Midnight Mass from Tewkesbury Abbey at ten minutes to midnight. BBC Two offered I Gotta Shoe, which was a version of Cinderella set in the American Deep South.

Christmas Day's line-up of festive specials included Doctor Finlay's Casebook Christmas episode,  John Betjeman's report on a Journey to Bethlehem, and a glimpse into the life of French underwater explorer  Jacques-Yves Cousteau narrated by Orson Welles - apart from the usual staple of Christmas Carols, Billy Smart's Circus, Disney Time cartoons for the children and some pantomime. A visit to the Royal Palaces preceded the traditional Queen's speech at 3pm.

Woman's Hour first went on air in the Light Programme on October 7th 1946. It made it to the cover of the magazine, and a feature inside explained the programme would include "talks on household management, cookery, fashion, beauty culture, child care, housing, and pensions." The presenter was Alan Ivimey, a "London-born journalist who specialises in writing for and talking to women" - he was replaced three months later by Joan Griffiths.

The first week of programmes featured  subjects such as "putting your best face forward', "how to take care of your feet", coupon savings and pensions. The listing for each day of that first week on air was highlighted in a beautifully illustrated box.

The first programme was followed by a special listeners' panel hearing the programme in Broadcasting House. The panel consisted of "Miss Margaret Bondfield, who was Minister of Labour from 1929-1931, Miss Deborah Kerr, the film star, and Mrs. Elsie May Crump, a butcher's wife from Chorlton-cum-Hardy."

Five years later, deputy programme editor Joanna Scott-Mancrief summed up some of the controversies stirred by the programme through their listeners' letters. She describes how an item in which Dr. Joad discussed English cooking "brought hundreds of brickbats and bouquets" including the letter from a listener at Gorleston-on-Sea: "Englishwomen cook what their menfolk want to eat. The average husband, faced by some delectable French concoction, will view it with grave suspicion and enquire: 'What's this?'"

She also highlights a letter asking Woman's Hour to start a "vigorous campaign". "We as women of the country are everlastingly referred to as 'housewives.' The Government, the newspapers, the BBC, the shopkeepers, all and everyone call us housewives. Couldn't we find some more attractive noun for ourselves? Please talk it over and see what you can do."

The deputy editor wrote again in 1956 about how the programme had evolved in the first ten years of life: "In 1946 housewives' problems were so many and pressing that the stress in the first programmes was inevitably on practical matters. In ten years listeners have, however, shown us that their interests are as wide as the world itself: accordingly, the programme has travelled abroad and acquired its own correspondents in five different countries."

Fast-forward to 1967, when Woman's Hour decided to celebrate its 21st anniversary with a series of "birthday fortnight" special editions.  "Although those of us who produce the programme had not planned any special celebration, listeners have been writing to us throughout the year to remind us of our birthday, sending greetings and suggesting items they would like to hear", wrote Monica Sims, editor of the programme at the time.

Items that week included a talk from Dr Benjamin Spock about parenting, a couple undecided about marriage, and being a grandmother.  

She announced some favourite guests and broadcasters would be "looking ahead to life in 1988" and hoped that for the next 21 years listeners would "enjoy many happy returns of Woman's Hour."

Woman's Hour did indeed continue on air in 1986 and made it to the cover of Radio Times for its 40th anniversary. The main article described the programme as "the first to break the BBC taboos surrounding such things as the Pill, homosexuality, impotence and frigidity". Programme editor Sandra Chalmers added that "we would never do something purely for the sake of shocking people, "but if it's in the interests of our listeners, there's nothing that can't be discussed."

The 50th anniversary was celebrated in 1996 with a cover featuring a semi-nude photograph of actor Helen Mirren, at "50 & Fabulous". Presenter Jenni Murray told how in 1992 "the programme came under threat. It was suggested that in a 'post-feminist' era its time, title and focus should change, you the listeners gave the reasons why it should continue - in an unprecedented furore directed at the then controller Michael Green (who now openly admits to travelling in permanent terror of being handbagged wherever he went)". 

"You told him the programme celebrated, informed, entertained and educated women, filling in the gaps that other programmes ignored. Some of you wrote to say how Woman's Hour had changed your life - giving you the courage to apply for a job, cope with a difficult teenager or take out the pension fund you'd been putting off. Some of you spoke of smears or mammograms you'd had because you heard it on Woman's Hour. The programme had saved your life. Men, too, wrote in to save 'their' programme - explaining how they loved to hear a female perspective, or how they now understood their wife's illness considerably better after hearing it described.

Woman's Hour will be celebrating its 70th birthday with a live audience show from the BBC Radio Theatre on October 10th. The panel will discuss the results of a poll specially commissioned to find out how life has changed for women at home and at work from 1946 to the present day. In the meantime, our suggestion is to search for different topics + the term "Woman's Hour" and organise it by Oldest First - this gives you a fascinating glimpse at how the programme has tackled different subjects through the decades. We've tried "job" and "sexual." What have you found?

1929 The first decade of RT Christmas covers was quite sober, sensible and monochrome, apart from a couple of front pages that were in full and glorious colour, including the very first one. This final cover of the 20s has a long message from "the broadcasters". It reflects the testing times of the Depression, saying "finances... are not what they were".

1935 This striking Harlequin design owes more to the traditions of pantomime than the snow and Santa that would come to dominate the Christmas cover in later years.

1943 The impact of conflict on the Christmas cover is boldly evident from this issue. Its message was that programmes would remain seasonal, but with emphasis on everyone engaged in the war effort.

1952 This illustration stands out in the 1950s with a family in a surreal, smoke-filled room warmed by the glow of a wireless set. With just a hint of a Christmas tree and a snow-filled landscape, our contemporary view of the season would take a while to emerge. Queen Elizabeth's first Christmas broadcast is given star billing on this cover.

1961 A bold design with a Christmas theme and a splash of colour heralded the start of the 60s. This cover was created by Bruce Angrave, who produced a series of posters for London Underground.

1973 Talent graces the Christmas cover in a suitably festive manner. The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise - giants of the seasonal screen - were brought together for this photographic offering. In 1971, the Two Ronnies had their own Christmas cover, and the following year Eric and Ern shared again with Lulu, Paul Nicholas - and a lion.

1985 The stars of Only Fools and Horses - one of the big successes of the Christmas special - were the cover stars this year. It was suitably festive with Buster Merryfield and his famous beard dressed as Father Christmas.

1999 The end of the century heralded festive artwork, but with a clear nod to the future. The Millennium Dome (remember that?) appears in the angel's snowstorm ornament of destiny.

2005 The return of Doctor Who and its place at the heart of the festive schedule is reflected on this cover. But the talent is left to one side in favour of a Tardis and Dalek-themed snowstorm. A festive Dalek also graced the 2009 Christmas cover.