Christmas Envy?

By: Chana Jenny Weisberg

How sweet to click on my new favorite parenting blog,Huffington Post’s Parents, and see that today’s lead article is entitled “4 Ways to Make Your Child’s Chanukah Special” by Betsy Brown Braun.

“Isn’t that incredibly nice?” I thought. Chanukah in the spotlight for a change instead of Christmas trees and Santas and socks dangling over a fireplace…

But the article really wasn’t so sweet after all. In fact, it was downright tragic.

This article describes how Christmas is, of course, the most awesome holiday in the universe, followed by suggestions on how we JewishMOMs can console our poor, miserable, suffering kidlings through our own whopper of a lam-o festival whose name nobody can even figure out how to spell.

Here’s two suggestions from Brown-Braun’s about how to help ourselves and our deprived children to overcome Christmas envy:

“Honor your child’s feelings. Take this opportunity to walk your child through her/his feelings of disappointment. Life is filled with times when we can’t “have it all”. Understanding that and giving your child the opportunity to reflect those feelings and help him develop coping skills is a gift. It will teach a tolerance for disappointment which is a critical, life-long lesson.

“Play reindeer games. Help your child to learn that you can love and appreciate something without bringing it into your home. You can go to a Christmas tree lot and play hide and seek, as you smell the fragrant trees. You can get yourselves invited to a friend’s house to trim their tree. You can count the number of wreaths you see on front doors. You can pile in the car in your pj’s and search for Christmas lights all over the city.”

Isn’t this, like, the saddest thing you’ve ever read?

And I know it’s true. I also had Christmas envy as a kid. Every year I would go to my best friend Jen Donelan’s house before Christmas to dress her Christmas tree with her and her mom and to drink egg nog and to look longingly at the big wrapped presents waiting for her underneath her tree. Now THAT was a holiday, I thought…Not like boring old Chanukah/Hanukah/Channuka/Hannuka….whatever.

And now that I’m religious? Chanukah, oh Chanukah! The light of Chanukah fills the universe for weeks beforehand. The anticipation, the excitement, the week plus a day of family togetherness in the glow of the Chanukah candles. One of my favorite, favorite holidays of the year.

Thank you Hashem for opening my eyes to perceive the holy light of Chanukah rather than the pulsing neon glow of red and green.

Read more from Chana Jenny at JewishMom.com