St Nicholas Day, 19 December 2022
A greeting for a St Nicholas morning that arrived in the dark, in the first winter of blackouts.
A happy St Nicholas Day to every household with a child in it.
Tomorrow morning a great many children will look under a pillow by the light of a phone, because the power will not be on. Some of them will be doing it in a place that is not home.
I have thought a lot this month about which traditions survive conditions like these, and the answer seems to be the small ones. A holiday requiring electricity, travel, a full table or a shop that is open would be cancelled this year. This one requires a pillow and a person who remembered.
The volunteers filling lists for hospitals, shelters and children's homes have had an extraordinary year and are doing this on top of it. So have the parents managing it alone while someone is away.
To all of them, and to every child waking up tomorrow: a good morning, whatever the lights are doing.
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