In Diane Marie Federicis childhood, the Christmas season really began with Thanksgiving. The huge turkey in the middle of the big table and the whole family seated around it led directly to making the gift lists. Then came the colorful decorations, the glittering lights, and Nana and Papa waiting for them on Christmas morning and of course, the presents! This joyous memoir shows us Christmastime through the eyes of a child. Christmas meant a happy time with a loving family, a magnificent meal, and most important the wonderful presents from all the family and from Santa, too, who just happened to have dropped by her grandparents house the night before. Above all, what lingers in the authors memory these many years later is the glorious, never-ending Christmas stocking. Diane Marie Federici retells the essential history of the Christmas stocking, and shows exactly what its like to be a child who just cant wait for Christmas Day and the chance to hold and try to empty the big, bottomless Christmas stocking her grandparents had hung by the chimney with care.

About the Author

Diane Marie Federici was born in 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts, where winter, snow, and Christmas seem to come early in the winter calendar but never soon enough for children anxiously awaiting Santas visit. In this gentle evocation of times past, Diane Marie Federici remembers with joy and gratitude the wonderful Christmas seasons of her childhood. Today Diane Marie Federici is a licensed practical nurse in Brockton, Massachusetts. She and her husband have four children. She is particularly interested in cooking, swimming, and knitting and in remembering.