Thoughts on Christmas Eve, a phrase that itself evokes specific thoughts, memories and feelings for just about all of us.

There will be no newspaper tomorrow.

This always leaves me a little uneasy. I am always worried that a big story will happen on a day when we aren't putting out a paper. In this age of the Internet, that is less of a concern, of course. UnionLeader.com is available to report big news as it happens.

Besides, it is nice for our delivery team to be able to awaken to presents under their trees, rather than to a cold car seat and in the cold and dark, tossing newspapers. I hope you will remember them. I know a lot of you do.

It is Christmas Eve, which ought to make us all feel good.

Yet there is an unease this year. Our memories must now include the horror that happened in Newtown, Conn., 10 days ago.

For some reason, the days thereafter reminded me very much of the time of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, which was also on a Friday and also just before a big holiday (Thanksgiving, in that case). In both, the nation turned on the weekend to the news media. TV and newspapers back then; this time, those media plus the Internet.

Newtown had several particular ties to New Hampshire, which kept our newsroom busy from almost the moment the news broke as to the scope of the massacre.

In a way, it is almost easier for the people in our business when something of this enormity happens. We feel it, of course. We are all parents or kin to those who have children. But we don't have time to dwell on the horror immediately. We have to be about the business of asking questions and getting answers for our readers.

Can it happen here? How safe are our own schools? What are the New Hampshire connections?

We aren't done with the questions, or the answers. But our reporters and correspondents and editors have done a good job to date in getting useful information to you.

Most of them will also have the day off tomorrow. I hope they and each of you have a good Christmas with your loved ones and friends.

Let's hope we can all add some more good Christmas memories to help overcome the bad ones.

.Write to Joe McQuaid at publisher@unionleader.com.