Jewish / Christian Home Creates Fun, Loads of Tradition and Respect

We celebrate Advent - with the candles each of the four Sunday evenings leading up to Christmas - We also have an Advent Calendar with clues to a small gift. A recent clue was in very small writing vroom - and of course it was a Hot Wheels car.  The clues help my daughter think about what the gift may be, but also it gives her clues about how her parents think - each of us writes the clues to half of the Advent gifts - so part of the fun is to figure out what parent wrote the clue. Christmas Eve is spent at Church with mid-night Mass. This is more out of tradition and belief that the communal spirit of the holiday is as important as what religious leaders have to say. Christmas morning is spent opening gifts and Christmas afternoon is spent sharing the day with family and friends, playing and enjoying each other's company.

Hanukkah began last evening. The first night of Hanukkah is the most special in our house. We invite family and friends. We light three Menorahs. The prayer is said three times: once in Hebrew, once sung in Hebrew and then in English. Everyone takes turns grating potatoes for latkes, we play dreidels and we talk about what miracles, or good things, have happened in our family and in the world during the year. We all have dinner at the table together, then my daughter opens a small gift, this year it was a hair thing and a new dreidels that she had been eying. We light the Menorahs every night with the prayer in three ways. Friends drop by or call nearly every night.

We talk about the similarities and differences of each tradition. We talk about what we appreciate in each other, then we play the piano - this happens for both holidays. The learning part is more about gratitude for the gifts (both non-material and material) we have experienced in the past year. We also talk about our hope for our future, and that of our family and friends as well as people around the world. We have been celebrating this way for the past 8 years, and it feels richer every year.