Winter changed how people lived in early New Jersey.

In Dutch-settled communities along the Hudson River and the Palisades, Christmas week was understood as a time when routine loosened, burial was delayed, and vigilance mattered. This episode explores how people organized their lives around uncertainty, not because they believed in ghosts, but because they believed attention was a form of responsibility.

Through a restrained narrative set in 1680 and documented Dutch Reformed church records from places like Bergen, Hackensack, Communipaw, and Paulus Hook, we examine why winter and Christmas were treated as moments when the world grew thin.

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