Reply to Jewish Families: What are your holiday traditions?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here- to answer the PP, I'm asking about the holiday season (ie, after thanksgiving through New Years time frame). I suppose I'm in the minority but I grew up culturally Jewish but not around a lot of Jews so I was always envious of all of the Christmas stuff (cookie decorating, decorating the house, picking out a tree, etc.).

Yes, I know that Hanukkah is a minor religious holiday.

Maybe I'm projecting my own feelings but I don't want my kid to feel left out of the holiday fun and want to foster some non-religious traditions for our family. I guess the closest is the move and chinese food idea but obviously it's not very baby/toddler friendly!

Thanks PP for the book recommendation- I'll check it out. [/quote]

We put up Hanukkah decorations in the house.  A Happy Hanukkah banner across the mantel and that sort of thing.  We don't go crazy, but enough to make the house feel a little more festive for 8 days.  You can make Hanukkah sugar cookies with dreidel and star cut outs too.  So far I've hit your "christmasy things" of cookie and house decorating.  You will get all sorts of responses on this, but even though Hanukkah is a minor Jewish holiday, we don't have a problem playing it up in our house.  We also have or attend a Hanukkah party each year.  We eat Latkes at some point over the week and exchange gifts and light the candles each night.  We do not go to temple for Hanukkah, but we do belong to a temple.

You can also come up with a different Christmas Day tradition.  It can be a movie and Chinese, or you can make it a nice "family day" where you play board games all day, or invite another Jewish family over for brunch or dinner each year, have a movie marathon at home, etc.

You can also make a bigger thing of New Years Eve or New Years Day in your house.

I understand where OP is coming from.  There is something festive and happy about the "Christmas" season, and for us at least, it is nice to find a way to embrace that spirit in our own way, without celebrating Christmas. [/quote]

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