The struggle is real! I’m Jewish girl trying to raise 2 boys to love being Jewish while the excitement of Christmas engulfs them. Now, to be clear I LOVE Christmas and all the wonderful commercialized aspects that come with it. The lights, eggnog, parties, sugar cookies but it’s hard watching my kids love Christmas and feeling ho-hum about Hanukkah. A little backstory–eleven plus years ago this Jewish girl married a boy (non-Jewish boy). We agreed to raise our kids Jewish, but allow many commercialized aspects of Christmas. I adore seeing my boys excited about Christmas but sometimes I feel it makes the struggle even greater.
Every year, I try to make it into my kids’ classrooms to either read a Hanukkah book or do a craft so that they and their friends know about Hanukkah. And, I try and make it exciting and fun too—because if I don’t no one else will. I struggle to not be offended by anyone who doesn’t quite understand what might offend a Jewish Mom. I struggle to make sure we make marshmallow dreidel treats and star sugar cookies so they see how cute Hanukkah can be. When the “holiday songs” are Jingle Bell Rock and Frosty the Snowman, I struggle. FYI—those are Christmas songs in case you were wondering. And I struggle when the holiday movie at school is Polar Express.
I struggle that kids only know the dreidel song and adults reference the Adam Sandler SNL song as the most familiar things about Hanukkah. The pre-conceived notions that we or my kids get more gifts because Hanukkah is 8 nights is actually not true. I remember as a kid I got sweat suits separated into tops and bottoms and charm bracelets with the charms other nights. We Jewish moms just have to be a little more creative in our wrapping.
I struggle that everything for Hanukkah is always blue and white, while Christmas has evolved way past red and green. I struggle with each of the 8 nights during the week to take time and celebrate the holiday between homework, basketball practices, emails and everything else. No other part of life slows down for us to celebrate.
I struggle because I don’t want to be the bah humbug on anyone’s holiday joy. I want to embrace it. And, I want my kids to feel part of the joy. To know that where they come from maybe different than their friends, but it is amazing in its own right. Because I wouldn’t change my upbringing or my life at all but, to be honest, this time of year it is a struggle.
