The ups and downs of life at a parochial school for 10-year-old Felix as the Christmas nativity pageant approaches.

Based on the New York Times best-selling novel by award-winning author Wally Lamb, vivid slice of 1960s life "Wishin' and Hopin'" is a wise-and-witty holiday tale that celebrates where we've been-and how far we've come. In the small town of Three Rivers, Connecticut, we go straight into the halls of St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parochial School with Felix Funicello, a Catholic-school fifth-grader in 1964, whose claim to fame is his cousin Annette Funicello, the famous Mouseketeer and teen movie queen. But grammar and arithmetic move to the back burner this holiday season with the sudden arrivals of substitute teacher Madame Frechette and feisty Russian student Zhenya Kabakova. While Felix learns the meaning of French kissing, cultural misunderstanding, and tableaux vivants, "Wishin' and Hopin'" barrels toward one outrageous Christmas.—Anonymous