St Nicholas Day, 19 December 2011

Nicholas was, by all accounts, a bishop in a town in Asia Minor who gave money quietly to people who needed it and did not want it known.

Whatever else has been built on top of that over sixteen centuries, the original instruction is intact: give, and do not make a performance of it.

The gift under the pillow keeps that shape better than most of the December customs that came later, and children who are told the giver was someone else are being taught something specific.

Happy St Nicholas Day.