St Nicholas Day, 6 December 2025
A greeting for a morning that has now belonged to December for three years, and for the children who have known nothing else.
A happy St Nicholas Day to every household with a child in it.
A child who is six this year has always had this day in December. For them there was never a calendar change; there is simply the date, and the pillow, and the morning.
That is how these things settle. Not through argument, but by a cohort growing up for whom the new arrangement is the only one there has ever been.
Tonight, as every year, volunteers are filling lists for hospitals, children's homes and shelters, and parents are managing it in rooms across several countries.
A good morning tomorrow to all of them, and to every child who checks under the pillow before opening their eyes.
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