For years, I had been sharing stories of my youth at Christmas while growing up in the 1960s and 1970s in my hometown of Rochester, New York. They were special times, and I was blessed to have been born into a large Italian-American family. We never had a lot of money, but we sure had a lot of love. I was raised with a strong sense of priorities and what really mattered in life. I wanted to share whatever insight I gained from those memories to provide some form of inspiration for everyone of all faiths and cultures.
I believe I have done that with my new book, The 12 Best Secrets of Christmas: A Treasure House of December Memories Revealed. This book is a special collection of real-life holiday memories that invites the reader to embrace, enjoy, and connect with the magic of Christmas.
Each chapter, classified as a secret, reveals a special sentiment that proves recognizable to all.
The book features a Foreword by actor Dean Butler, from Little House on the Prairie, and an Introduction by actor Jerry Houser, from The Brady Brides. The book has also been endorsed by several other celebrities including actor Richard Thomas, from The Waltons, and Barry Williams of The Brady Bunch (who was the TV commercial voiceover for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the 1980s).
Herbie J Pilato is a writer, producer, and TV personality who has authored several books about pop-culture and classic TV, including biographies of Mary Tyler Moore and Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery; and guides to Kung Fu, and The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. He has worked for studios such as Warner Bros., NBCUniversal, and Sony; and TV networks like Bravo, the Reelz Channel, E!, TLC, and most recently on CNN's hit 8-part series, The History of the Sitcom. In 2019, his retro-TV talk show, Then Again with Herbie J Pilato, premiered on Amazon Prime, and Amazon Prime UK. His newest book, Retro Active Television: An In-Depth Perspective on Classic TV's Social Circuitry, will be published in early 2023. He just completed a new biography of Sean Connery, and is presently writing a biography of Diana Rigg.
