Santa’s reading children’s wish lists on television, and Hamilton is dressed to the nines: twas the week before Christmas, Bermuda-style.

Sloane Wilson lays out the island’s past and present traditions in her book about the holiday season.

She and illustrator Lamelle Paynter included everything from cassava pie to driving through Kilderry Estate to see its once legendary lighting display in Twas the week before Christmas.

You can find it at Bermuda Bookstore for $22. “The book talks about all the different traditions we have in Bermuda,” the author said.

“So there’s something in the book for everyone — old and young.”

Ms Wilson wrote the book in 2011. Her plan was to submit it as part of The Royal Gazette’s annual short story competition, but she was told “it didn’t qualify because it was a poem, not a story”.

“I thought it was cute, but didn’t know what to do with it.”

She was then working for the Bermuda Department of Tourism. The receptionist there suggested Ms Wilson have a conversation with her son, a construction worker with a skill for drawing. “Lamelle and I got talking one day and I asked him to illustrate it,” she said.

The completed book “sat in her e-mail” for five years.

“I think I lost the inspiration to put it out,” she said. “Every time I thought about it, it was too close to Christmas or after the holiday was done. Finally, this year, I said we’ll print it.

“The team at AF Smith were phenomenal and the response to the book so far has been awesome, but it’s the illustrations that definitely bring the story to life and make it very fun.”

The book is the second written by the 34-year-old who now works in the Department of E-Commerce. Her first, Bitter Sweet, was an erotic novel she also penned about five years ago.

“I love writing, so it came naturally to me,” she said of Twas the week before Christmas. “I asked co-workers what were some of their fun memories from the holiday and those are all included in this book.

“The response has been amazing. People say ‘Do you remember [X, Y, Z]? I wish I could do that with my kid’. Everybody is having fun with it. It’s truly Bermudian in every sense of the word.

“[Lamelle and I are] now looking to do more and plan to create a series of books around other holidays and traditions in Bermuda.”