I know it is tradition for McHenry County government to shut down on the afternoon of December 24th.

The McHenry Library District tells its web site readers that it will be closed two days the last two weeks of December.

That goes back at least to 1966, the first year I was McHenry County Treasurer.

But I didn’t know the tradition had extended to the whole day.

It’s not that I called the courthouse and found no one there.

But I did try to contact every library district covering part of McHenry County and struck out.

I found none were open.

So, the Christmas holiday has turned into two days off for at least the libraries I contacted.