Saint Nicholas Day Eve.

In which, as children back in Wisconsin, my brother and I would set out our winter boots in the hallway outside our bedrooms. The next morning we were delighted to find that Saint Nicholas had filled our boots with candies, fruit, evergreen sprigs, and calenders for the next year (Football themed for my brother, Dungeons and Dragons themed for yours truly.)

It was also the day in which my mother would incessently torment me by playing Schumann's "Knecht Ruprecht Theme" on her upright piano.

Knecht Ruprecht was the mean, sooty, hunchbacked servant of Saint Nicholas and was rumored to beat children for being naughty. He was a permanent fixture in my nightmares circa 1984.