How to Celebrate a Family Christmas and Hanukkah

Hanukkah and Christmas are only two of the many mid-winter holidays celebrated by cultures across the globe. The Christian holiday, Christmas, marks the birth of Christ and is celebrated on December 25th. The Jewish holiday Hanukkah is an 8-day festival commemorating the rededicating of the Temple in 165 BC. It begins on the 25th day of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar. Here are some suggestions for celebrating the two holidays together.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Decorate for both holidays. Find or make Hanukkah-themed decorations for your Christmas tree. Wrap gifts in both Hanukkah and Christmas wrapping paper. Place holly sprigs around the Menorah. Be as creative as you like with this. If there are children in your household invite them to make suggestions.

2. Prepare food from both traditions. For example, make cut-out sugar cookies in Hanukkah shapes. Decorate them with colored sugar in red and green for Christmas and blue and yellow for Hanukkah. At your holiday meal serve dishes traditional to both your Christian and Jewish family members.

3. Combine gift-giving traditions. Allow children to select one gift from under the tree for each of the eight nights of Hanukkah.

4. When you light the Menorah each night, sing both a Christmas song and the traditional Hebrew chant.

5. Hold a latke party for Christmas Eve. Have children and adults participate in making the traditional potato pancakes. Serve with the potato pancakes with homemade apple sauce and eat them around the Christmas tree.

6. Make dreidels available for children's games on Christmas Eve. Or combine Christmas carol singing with the dreidel game by having a song for every round of the game.

Resources

• Ideas to celebrate Hanukkah.
• Explanation of traditional customs.

[DHST]

on 10/6/2008 http://www.chabad.org/Hanukkah has an amazing Hanukkah Guide.

[JoeyC]

on 12/13/2007 Wow, LisaS, you sure are tolerant of religious beliefs.

Last I checked, a lot of families have both Christians and Jews in them. This article suggests giving kids exposure to both. No, it may not be something endorsed by your local priest and it may be unpalatable to most rabbis, but eHow is a not a mouthpiece for any church or religious practice. It's just a place that tells you how to do things.

[LisaS]

on 11/21/2007 This is so offensive I don't even know where to start. It's "not even wrong."
The very meaning of Hanukkah is about the freedom of Jews to practice Judaism. Appropriating anything Hanukkah related into Christmas celebrations, or vice versa, is inappropriate and contradictory to the Hanukah holiday. Celebrate Hanukah with Hanukah traditions. And celebrate Christmas with Christmas traditions. If the dates of the holidays coincide, by all means do both, but don't mix them up. There is nothing about a Christmas tree that relates to Hanukkah in any way, so Jewish/Hanukkah- themed ornaments should not be hung on a Christmas tree. Want to make Hanukkah cookies? Make rugelah. But don't make Christmas cookies in the shape of the Star of David for Christmas. Don't light the candles of the Hanukkia (Menorah) all at once on Christmas to observe Hanukkah on Christmas. That's just wrong.