The shortest day of the year paradoxically celebrates St. Lucy, the saint of light!
Ranieri Mario Cossar, in his Gorizia d’altri tempi, relates that:
“Santa Lucia (Lìissia) dispensed gifts to the girls. On the evening of December 12, the eve of the Saint, they would place a stocking in the window, which they would find the next morning filled with every good thing. But the older, and more mischievous, girls sang in those days. :

Santa Lucia,
Mamma mia,
Bring the favors
In my sock.
But if mamma
Doesn’t put them,
She’ll stay svode
the socks.”