By Lois Rogers | Correspondent

Turning the pages of the newest incarnation of “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” this one subtitled “It’s Christmas! 101 Joyful Stories about the Love, Fun, and Wonder of the Holidays,” it’s easy to be captivated by the frothy mix of delightful Christmas stories. Its 416 pages read like a sleigh ride through the festive season. Tales swirl like snowflakes, each a bit different and charming, whether unabashedly merry or bittersweet.

Tucked in among them is “The Christmas Story Revisited,” a tale sure to tickle the funny bones of everyone who can appreciate a good-hearted family prank, the kind which is apt to surface at Christmas along with oversized, kitschy sweaters, eggnog and fruitcake.

The fact that this particular offering is by Dorothy K. LaMantia, a long-time freelancer for The Monitor and member of St. Mary Parish, Barnegat, makes this spin on the iconic 1983 movie about “Ralphie” Parker’s quest for a Red Ryder BB Gun all the more delightful.

LaMantia, a retired middle school teacher, wife, mother and writer, dishes up one of her own favorite family Christmas memories, and in doing so, invites us in to an event which, as she put it during a recent interview, “memorializes something very, very sweet and dear in the house” – the gift of laughter her family shares. This, her third story to appear in the ongoing “Chicken Soup” series, is rightly located in a section of the book devoted to “Holiday Hijinks” and tells how, unbeknownst to each other, two of her three children plan to pull the same practical joke on their siblings. “My son Jon called in September that year from Texas saying he and his fiance got a great idea” to recreate the memorable, if totally outrageous, plush pink rabbit costume created in the movie by a well meaning, though misguided, relative for the hapless Ralphie.

Being forced by his mom to don the costume with its huge floppy ears, bunny tail and “footies” is one of many high points in the film. LaMantia recalled that her son had found adult-sized pink footie pajamas on the Internet and pink bonnets, to which he and his fiancé were planning to ears, and bunny feet.

“We’re making one for our brother and sister and their spouses,” her son announced, laughing hysterically.

He cautioned his mom not to breathe a word – a promise she kept when she received a call from daughter Kathryn a few nights later confiding the very same plan.

She and husband, Joe, were “overjoyed” as they anticipated the practical jokes to come. “We didn’t breathe a word. We just looked forward to five adultsized pink bunnies on Christmas Eve.”

Writing up the memory to share for the Chicken Soup series is a high point in this second career LaMantia is forging since leaving teaching in 2006.

The series, which has become a household byword for feel-good inspiration, has sold more than 112 million books in the United States and Canada since it debuted in 1993. There are almost 200 titles in print in more than 20 languages.

LaMantia connected with the series by way of a Catholic writers’ conference soon after embarking on her new vocation. “When I left teaching, I knew that my big love was writing. That was what I wanted to do.” Deeply committed to her faith, she looked toward it for inspiration.

She learned that the Chicken Soup editors were looking for stories for a new book in the series, “Living Catholic Faith – 101 stories to offer hope, deepen faith and spread love,” to be written by Catholics of all ages.

Two of her stories were accepted for that book, which was published in 2008, La Mantia, one of the legion of fans of “A Christmas Story,” described herself as so very pleased that her homage to the film appears in this book.

“To me, this is so delicious,” she said. “I think there is redemption in laughter. If I have a good laugh, I feel aerated. I think that this is a way of giving back to a piece of art that was somebody’s creation that really touched your spirit,” said LaMantia.

She noted the creative genius of humorist Jean Shepherd who based “A Christmas Story” on his own childhood memories. “It’s an homage to the joy we experienced as a family watching the movie,” she says of her story.

The movie, she noted, rolls out the simple joys of the Parker family, as well as their eccentricities, but most of all their love for each other. The working class family, she said, reminds her of her own. “The family togetherness in the movie manifests itself through all the funny things and shows that humor has a way of binding people together.

“Sharing love and laughter are the best ornaments you can have in the house.”

And so, she said, the film remains a seasonal staple in her family.

Seeing it, she says, “is like visiting an old friend.”