Posted Friday, December 25 at 5:31 AM CST, 6:31 AM EST, 1131 GMT.

Top editorial and op-ed commentaries in the Friday editions of the leading U. S. newspapers:

(An abbreviated version of the press review today, just in case anyone is interested in such a thing on Christmas morning — )

1) In the Washington Post, Michael Gerson offers an essay that begins with a recollection of a visit to an orphanage in Kenya for AIDS victims. “The children keep memory boxes containing photos and mementos of their deceased parents. These acts of preservation seem a kind of desperate protest — that lives should matter to someone, even when they are short and tragic….. Some might consider these surplus lives…. But Christmas carries a different message. A child of questionable parentage, born into humble circumstances, in a provincial backwater, begins a short life that ends in an execution. Yet it is somehow the hinge of history.”

2) In the New York Times, David Brooks offers his “Sidney Awards” for the best magazine articles of the year. “The most powerful essay I read this year was David Grann’s ‘Trial by Fire’ in The New Yorker. Grann investigated the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 for murdering his three children by setting their house on fire.” The article raises doubts about the evidence upon which Willingham’s conviction was based.

3) In the NYT, Paul Krugman hails the passage of the Senate version of the health-care reform bill. “Indulge me while I tell you a story — a near-future version of Charles Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol.’ It begins with sad news: young Timothy Cratchit, a k a Tiny Tim, is sick. And his treatment will cost far more than his parents can pay out of pocket…. But reform legislation enacted in 2010 banned insurance discrimination on the basis of medical history and also created a system of subsidies to help families pay for coverage. Even so, insurance doesn’t come cheap — but the Cratchits do have it, and they’re grateful. God bless us, everyone.”

“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night….”