Holiday Traditions

I was visiting Burgh Baby this morning and reading her lovely post about her fantasy Christmas morning that she plans this year with her own little family. It really 'twas beautiful but honestly? I cannot WAIT to read what REALLY happens. Call me evil...I'll wait.

Anyway, she also asked readers to talk about their own holiday traditions. As Jews, obviously, we don't do the whole "Christmas morning" shindig. We USED to but that's a long time ago and we've created new traditions now.

So...you're asking...what DO Jews do during Christmas?


My family probably has a weird penchant for Christmas movies during the season, although after a while, even WE can't take much more. We start out the season on Thanksgiving with several airings of "Home for the Holidays", which, while not REALLY a Christmas film, does kind of set the tone for family holidays. We move from there to the classic "Home Alone", "Christmas Vacation" and "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." Basically, if it has a Christmas light or tree in it, we'll watch it including "While You Were Sleeping", "Last Holiday" and my personal favourite, "Christmas in Connecticut" - because I am a sucker for the 40s.

So what do we do when we're not being couch potatoes throughout the holidays? We definitely look for chances to connect with other Jews like maybe bowling on Christmas Eve with Chabad, mitzvah day (this year on Christmas Eve if you're interested!) and finally, a movie and chinese on Christmas Day! I actually think we have more fun now than we ever did before.

This year, however, we are thinking of doing something a little different for us and visiting my Dad in WV over Christmas. Chanukah is early in December so it will a distant memory by the time Christmas break rolls around. We had considered renting a cabin just to get away for a bit but considering he has a pool in the basement and a hot tub, steam room and tanning bed as well as a pinball machine, pool table, loaded DirectTV and a vintage table top Ms. PacMan Game - well, it's like going to a resort. Plus, he loves Christmas and it will be nice to make his holiday special too.


So while our Christmas isn't a traditional, mainstream "American" Christmas, it is a holiday season we enjoy and make special. Does it always work out? Not always...one year Evan lost our DVD collection and we had to strategically replace. But this year I am hopeful, if not for Chinese (I mean we WILL be in WV)....at least for a wonderful, special time with my family before it's back to work and time to start the work year again.