Happy St Nicholas Day: To get the spirit of the season rolling, here's a James Thurber holiday favorite, "A Visit from Saint Nicholas (In the Ernest Hemingway Manner)":

It was the night before Christmas. The house was very quiet. No creatures were stirring in the house. There weren’t even any mice stirring. The stockings had been hung carefully by the chimney. The children hoped that Saint Nicholas would come and fill them.

The children were in their beds. Their beds were in the room next to ours. Mamma and I were in our beds. Mamma wore a kerchief. I had my cap on. I could hear the children moving. We didn’t move. We wanted the children to think we were asleep.

“Father,” the children said.

There was no answer. He’s there, all right, they thought.

“Father,” they said, and banged on their beds.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“We have visions of sugarplums,” the children said…

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Andrew Cusack posts a tribute to the good saint and to a lost NYC landmark, the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas, "New York's Protestant Cathedral," which housed the oldest congregation in the city but was torn down to make room for the Sinclair Oil Building.

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"Do you know what Minneapolis lacks? Heads on pikes." - - Esther Wilberforce-Packard

A fine selection of Christmas cartoons by Charles Addams includes one I particularly like involving hot oil and carolers.

Elsewhere is a gallery of photos from Elephant House, home of the late Edward Gorey.

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This year's "Dominic the Italian Christmas Donkey" on the local 24-7 Christmas music stations appears to be the ring-a-ding-ding Rat Pack Dean Martin version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside."

Allow me to suggest the Margaret Whiting-Johnny Mercer version, which may be heard here, or the Louis Armstrong-Velma Middleton version, heard by scrolling down to July 24, 2001, at this site.

Dominic, meantime, is indexed for your listening pleasure here along with scads of other popular Christmas songs.