St Nicholas Day, 19 December 2020
A greeting for a December when a great many things happened at a distance.
This is one custom that a difficult year could not interfere with, since it requires no gathering, no hall and no crowd. A gift under a pillow works in a house with the door shut.
The lists still circulated, the parcels still went to hospitals and institutions, and a certain amount of it was arranged by people who never left their own flat.
Some traditions turn out to be very well designed for circumstances nobody anticipated.
Happy St Nicholas Day.
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