The book begins in Ybor City, where Ferdie Pacheco grew up in the 1930s and '40s, an immigrant utopia of Cubans, Spaniards, Jews, and Italians in Tampa, Florida. Pacheco's own Latin heritage sets the stage for the book's focus on Christmas Eve, or Nochebuena -- for Latin families often the biggest feast day of the season, when friends and family sit around a table laden with traditional dishes, telling stories that grow more colorful each year.

As the Pachecos know, however, the beauty of American holiday celebrations is their rich diversity, and so they range well beyond Ybor City, collecting recipes and stories -- old and new -- from Cuban, Spanish, Italian, Sicilian, Mexican, and Jewish friends around the country.

A master story-teller, Pacheco recounts tales that are by turns hilarious, moving, and inspiring. Known to many as "The Fight Doctor", Pacheco includes a delightful Nochebuena story about his daughter Tina and Muhammad Ali.

Recipes are organized by nationality and type of food, including appetizers, salads, gravies and sauces, soups and stews, meats, game, seafood, pasta and dumpling dishes, rice and bean dishes tamales arid chili, vegetables, jellies, desserts, drinks.