diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 2fae864..dadabb5 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,3 +1,22 @@
+1.2.9-56 | 2024-12-09 14:00:22 +0100
+
+  * Fix formatting of nodes with no non-error children (Benjamin Bannier, Corelight)
+
+    When formatting a `Node`'s child we allowed omitting passing in of the
+    child to format. In that case the user would pass a `None` child and we
+    would attempt to default to formatting the next non-error child. The
+    helper we used to get that child could still return `None` (in case
+    there were only error children remaining, or on incorrect use of the
+    function when the node had no children), but we never handled that case;
+    instead we would have surfaced an `AttributeError` like
+
+    ```
+    AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'prev_error_siblings'
+    ```
+
+    With this path we explicitly skip any child formatting if we found no
+    child to be formatted.
+
 1.2.9-54 | 2024-12-09 14:00:03 +0100
 
   * Bump pre-commit hooks (Benjamin Bannier, Corelight)
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index c902f4d..d9a78fd 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-1.2.9-54
+1.2.9-56
diff --git a/zeekscript/__init__.py b/zeekscript/__init__.py
index 82677ee..13aeca3 100644
--- a/zeekscript/__init__.py
+++ b/zeekscript/__init__.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 """Wrapper around more low-level tests."""
 
-__version__ = "1.2.9-54"
+__version__ = "1.2.9-56"
 __all__ = [
     "Formatter",
     "Script",
diff --git a/zeekscript/formatter.py b/zeekscript/formatter.py
index 2fa2dc2..01c04ab 100644
--- a/zeekscript/formatter.py
+++ b/zeekscript/formatter.py
@@ -149,6 +149,8 @@ def _format_child_impl(self, node, indent, hints=None):
     def _format_child(self, child=None, indent=False, hints=None):
         if child is None:
             child = self._next_child()
+        if child is None:
+            return
 
         # XXX Pretty subtle that we handle the child's surrounding context here,
         # in the parent. Might have to refactor in the future.