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How Do You Celebrate Hanukkah?

12/3/2013

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We have received several replies from our readers. Here is the first:

I have a couple Hanukkah music CD's. I like to play it in the background when I'm going about life during Hanukkah. It has made the tunes more familiar over the years for me. 

Some years I have made batches of latkes for my immediate neighbors and delivered them hot to their houses (pre-arranged that they would be home to receive them). I've included a little tub of sour cream and small jar of apple sauce with them.  People go absolutely bonkers over them.  One next door neighbor used to ask me what the delicious smell was wafting from my house. That was the year I decided to make her a batch of latkes and it kind of grew from there.   This has been a really nice way of paying back neighbors who have brought platters of Christmas cookies and fudge over the years. 

Most years I have tried to add one more Hanukkah-themed item to a little collection I have of candy dishes and the like.  It is fun to open the box of them every year and use them during Hanukkah. I put them away after Hanukkah is over and bring them back out each year.  For me this sort of replaces the feeling of bringing out the Christmas ornaments each year.  I'm starting to have memories of these items. Some were gifts from friends, others I bought at Jewish art fairs etc... None are expensive. They are just little momentos.  Having them out on coffee table etc.. during Hanukkah makes it festive. 

I buy Hanukkah toys for our dogs - okay, I know, it is stupid but they actually do have them next to the Christmas dog toys in the pet stores.  The last couple years I have sent Hanukkah theme toys to our "grand dog".  I did not find any for our grand cat however. 

Since my children are older and I don't have any grandchildren (just grandpets) I have kind of "adopted" a 5 year old girl who is the daughter of some friends of ours. They are Jewish.  For most every Jewish holiday I try to remember her in some way. For Chanukah this year she's getting some chocolate gelt and some Chanukah dominoes from me.  Just the experience of shopping for her gift and wrapping it helps me get into a Hanukkah mood.  I think for a lot of Jewish kids whose own extended family may be far away - having an adopted aunt or bubbe close by to remember them at Jewish holidays is a nice gesture. 

Each year at Hanukkah I try to do some sort of tzedakah project.  This year I've put out the word we are collecting items for a flea market to support an animal rescue organization. Other years I have collected coats for coat drives etc... 

It's not part of Hanukkah this year - but we always go out for Chinese food and a movie with Jewish friends on Christmas eve.  I really look forward to that as part of my December celebration.   It is a nice antidote to all the office Christmas parties and other Christmas-themed hubbub around us this time of year. 

Afikomen has chocolate gelt which is over the top delicious - even better than See's chocolate gelt.  I squirreled away a bag of it for myself and plan to eat a coin or two every day of Hanukkah just because...

If it's in my budget, some years I go to Saul's Deli in Berkeley and have my favorite Jewish comfort foods - Matzos brie, matzos ball soup, etc...  It is fun to bring a non-Jewish friend and introduce them to Saul's.  Many people (shockingly) have never eaten there. 

I attended the big Menorah lighting in Union Square in SF a couple of years.  That was cool and better than most Christmas tree lightings I've attended.  (Dawn - Did you know Rabbi Manhoff in San Leandro lights the menorah each night on the roof of Temple Beth Sholom in San Leandro - I think he does it usually at 6 p.m.  The public is welcome to come watch it. You'd have to check with their office to be sure it's happening still.  Their congregation may have a little event around it one night. I'm not sure.) 

The J.C.C.'s usually have Hanukkah happenings. 

Ditto synagogues. 

So... that's a lot. I probably could think of other things I've done over the years. I don't do all these things every year.  I know Hanukkah is a minor Jewish holiday and shouldn't be equated with Christmas - but it's hard to deny they come the same time of the year and if you are a Jew by Choice who has a lifetime of Christmases in your past it is pretty easy to want to fill the void of Christmas with Hanukkah.  Even those of us who were not religious Christians effortlessly celebrated Christmas that was all around us.  Being Jewish you have to be more proactive to bring Hanukkah into your life.  




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My Thoughts on Christmas

11/22/2010

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(Photo credit: By FotoosVanRobin from Netherlands - La Zi Ji (Chicken with Chiles)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8196042)

Over the past few years I've created family traditions on Christmas. Before my daughter was born I would spend Xmas eve with friends at a Jewish-themed comedy show, eating Chinese food. Now I try to spend the day with friends away from the crowds and shopping malls, and the evening with a special movie and Chinese take-out.   I would suggest either It’s a Wonderful Life (classic for some) or Dirty Dancing (one of my favorite chick flicks and so Jewish!). 


I have to admit Christmas is always complicated for converts. We have family who wants to see us and they are always going to request we join in their celebrations in ways that may make a new Jew question their Jewishness. I've found it can be easier when Christmas and Hanukkah overlap because there will always be activities at your shul to participate in and Hanukkah parties to attend.

By GW, a Conservative female


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My Thoughts on Christmas

11/18/2010

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​For all the years since our conversion I have made a conscious effort to run away from all things Christmas. I did a good job of shutting down all memories of my childhood Christmas experience. I thought I had moved on and by stuffing them down I could ignore them. Since all our Christian relatives were dead it was pretty easy to ignore. 

This year, however, I decided it would be ok to have a classical radio station playing while I did my housework - even if it did play Christmas music 3/4 of the time.  The other day a simple guitar version with no lyrics of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" came on.  For the first time ever since our conversion over a decade ago I sat still for those 3 or 4 minutes and allowed my mind to drift back to my childhood Christmas memories - all the simple little things that were good about the holiday. It was like a power point presentation in my mind - frame after frame of snapshots slowly fading into view.  There was the plaster of Paris snowman, reindeer and Santa's sleigh my grandfather in Long Beach installed on his roof each year, the antique porcelain dolls that had been my parents from their own childhoods that we put on the tree, the stockings we had for our dogs, the jello mold my mother made each year, the Bing Crosby recording of White Christmas that was required listening for the weeks before Christmas. Dozens of little flashbacks.  


Tears poured down my cheeks and it felt quite cathartic to think about.  This quiet little solitary trip into my Christian past was not about religion - but about family connections, traditions, sights/smells/tastes that recurred year after year.  have created these same memories for my own Jewish children - wonderful Jewish holiday memories.  Just as I remember squirming in my seat during Midnight Mass and long Easter services in my childhood Lutheran Church, my own kids will remember long days at Shul during High Holy Days. They will also remember lighting the menorahs, Seders with friends, our annual Christmas eve Chinese feast and movie with our chavurah and much, much more.  I think every year at Christmas I am going to set aside 5 or 10 minutes to be alone and think about my childhood Christmases and allow myself a good cry. Tears of joy, happiness, loss, sadness. I don't really miss Christmas. I miss the people, now all gone, I used to spend it with.  Then I will spend the rest of the holiday building closer ties with my Jewish friends and thinking about how to make all the Jewish holidays more memorable for my own children.
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