Wonderings 15 What Do You Do About Christmas?
It probably would not surprise you to know that my family does not have a tradition of having Christmas trees in our house. When I was young, I did visit with my Christian friends, and enjoyed helping to "trim" their trees. My siblings married non-Jews, and have had beautiful trees in their homes, and a variety of Christmas observances as part of their family traditions.
I know some Jewish families in Shreveport who never had a Christmas tree, but I also know some families in Shreveport who - even though no one in their family was Christian (at the time), did have Christmas trees and Christmas parties in their homes.
It may surprise you to know that this year every child in the Religious School has at least one parent who was not born Jewish - most have parents who are not Jewish. Most of the children in our Religious School celebrate Christmas with their family (grandparents, etc.), and many have elements of Christmas in their own homes.
I think we need to understand and appreciate our multi-faceted traditions.
This week I am wondering: Do you have traditions about Christmas in your family? Did they change over the years? Christmas is a Federal Holiday - do you have insights about how to celebrate it as a Jew?
My tradition still does not include celebrating Christmas. I am going to admit that most years I think I had eaten Chinese food for Christmas. This year Christmas falls on Shabbat. We realized that most families probably have plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning - so we are doing Shabbat services and Torah Study on Zoom. This way we can get together, but still stay at home. Whatever else you may be doing this Shabbat, you are welcome to join us. CLICK HERE to join the Zoom 6pm Friday for a Welcome Shabbat mini service; 9:45am Saturday (Torah Study); 11am Saturday (Shabbat morning service).
You may be interested to read some examples of what Jews do on Christmas. There are many others. I always appreciated knowing that there are many Jews who cover for the Christians where they work - like doctors, for example.
This one gives ideas about what to do, encouraging Jews to do Jewish things.
This one is from a few years ago, and talks about ways Jews have celebrated or contributed to the celebration of Christmas.
This is a recent one about a Rabbi that wound up with a Christmas Tree.
THIS is a new article (that I did not see in time for the email I sent) that was written by Debby Waldman - a good friend of mine (from my CNYFTY days). It is called: "Why the Rabbi's Daughter Has a Christmas Tree."
Responses:
In the military, I covered for my Christian co-workers so they could celebrate Christmas. They always gave me New Years Eve off, because I was single. I always stayed home on NY eve because of my dogs and fireworks, and also because I didn't want to be on the roads with those who might celebrate too much. The last few NY eves, I have assisted the Louisiana State Police and SPD with DUI checkpoints as an SPD auxiliary officer. My Mother would make sweets (such as fudge, cookies, etc) to take to the Police Station and Fire Station for those working on Christmas Eve to thank them for working on their holiday to protect us. P.S.: Chinese food sounds good to me!!! [E]
Really enjoyed reading. It is definitely food for thought. [G]
Your grammar inspector friend sees “incites” instead of “insights” so I’m incited to respond. Have a joyful Shabbat and no Christmas celebration- we will be doing the same! [H] {*Thanks for the insight - it has been changed in the message above. Sorry about the typo.}
Being born and raised in a Catholic neighborhood in Brooklyn Christmas never bothered or affected me. We did not have a tree. Interestingly trees were put up ( by most) by Santa Claus on Christmas eve. The only item I was jealous of were the Lionel train sets that were also put up on Christmas. I enjoyed singing some Christmas carols at school ( I would NOT sing Silent Night) , and using green and red crayons for the simple reason that it meant I didn't have to learn anything that day. Think seeing a projector when you entered class i.e., substitute teacher ! To me it's a season. Tree no tree. Stocking no stocking. Jesus.....I don't think so. [J]
I grew up in a non-Jewish home, but I never liked Christmas even as a child. I do truly enjoy the bright lights, but it’s an expensive, chaotic holiday with confusing traditions. As the years have gone by, it seems like the holiday takes up 1/6th of the year and is nearly impossible to avoid. The decorations, movies, and music are everywhere. It is one of the most frustrating aspects of raising Jewish children. Even the schools regularly show Christmas films or give Christmas-themed assignments and parties. When my children were born, we tried to implement a “jewishy” Christmas for the sake of the grandparents. We put up a simple blue and white tree, and focused on family and the winter season. It was so much work and only confused everybody. So we quickly switched to a strictly no-Christmas home, and I teach my kids that it’s not our holiday. We still go to grandparents’ homes and the kids open gifts there, with no mention of religion or santa-type characters. We buy a gift for each of my nieces and nephews. I always try to work on Christmas Eve and day, to allow other nurses to be home to celebrate. When it is not on Shabbat, we also like to go to the movies and eat Chinese food. Other than that, it’s usually just a normal day. On a side note, every year lately it makes me sad to hear coworkers complain about the enormous expenses and stress of preparing for Christmas. It makes me wonder if it has always been like this. [A]
I don't celebrate Christmas, but respect my husband that does. He has a fake tree on the outside porch decorated and we will go see his family for Christmas eve and Christmas day. [A]
We stopped celebrating Xmas many years ago. We have family who still celebrate. However, when we made the cut, we made a firm cutting of that tradition. We no longer participated or went home over winter break because they wanted us to continue to celebrate. We began going at thanksgiving and they still would celebrate Xmas at thanksgiving with us so we stopped going then and would try to go visit for a few days over spring break or the summer. We begged them to stop including us many times. For us, it seemed wrong to celebrate something we didn’t believe. It seemed against Hashem to celebrate another g-d (to xtians) being born. We have continued to firmly not celebrate Xmas. We have enjoyed Hanukkah for many years and we always get together with our Texas/Louisiana family at some point then and have a meal and light the hanukkiah. Hanukkah did NOT become our jewish Xmas however. We retell the Hanukkah story. Our grandbaby has Hanukkah books that we read. I respect other people enjoying their traditions but for us, we have chosen to try not to blur the lines of separation. We do not wish to assimilate as it seems Torah has much to say about assimilation and the prohibition of such. That’s our views for us. [K]