By THERESA REYNOLDS

By THERESA REYNOLDS

Democrat Special Writer

Eleanor Roosevelt, once called “the first lady of the world,” was a confirmed Christmas fan, and collected a group of stories and poems, including a touching story she wrote herself, about Christmas.

Included in Eleanor Roosevelt's Christmas Book are her own accounts of Christmas, both at Hyde Park before Roosevelt’s presidency and in the White House.

Christmas celebration, for the Roosevelts, started on Christmas Eve at Hyde Park where there was a party for all the families living on the estate. Presents were piled under the tree and Franklin Roosevelt chose children to distribute gifts and send them around to the guests.

Franklin's mother gave out envelopes filled with money for the help, and Eleanor did the same. Cornucopias filled with old-fashioned sugar candies and peppermint canes from the tree were distributed, too.

When the family was alone, Franklin would begin to read “A Christmas Carol.” He would pick parts he thought would entertain the young children.

Later, after supper, he read other parts for the older ones.

Eleanor arose early on Christmas morning to welcome the children, who ran into the bedroom where their stockings had been hung. She’d put the little ones in the big bed to open their stockings.

“I tried to see that they all had a glass of orange juice before the opening of stockings began, but the excitement was so great I was not always successful,” she said.

“Breakfast was late on Christmas morning, and my husband resented having to go to church on Christmas Day and sometimes flatly refused to attend,” she said. “But I would go with my mother-in-law and such children as she could persuade to accompany us. For the most part, however, the children stayed home. In later vears. I went to midnight service on Christmas