My family doesn't celebrate Christmas. Oh we will go to Christmas parities and look at lights. We might help the less fortunate. We will wish people a Merry Christmas and not explain how we don't celebrate. My husband wasn't born Jewish... He converted when I we had our first child. When we married we decided we could celbrate Christmas with other people but we would not bring the holiday into our home.
For the first few years we would go to my parents for the Jewish Holidays and his parents for Christmas. Everyone seemed happy with the arrangement. As his siblings started to marry they wanted to start their own family traditions and his parents started traveling for Christmas. They called me the Chanukah elf. I sort of doubt any of my children remember goint to their grandparent's home for the holiday. Since money always seemed to be tight we would occaisonly send my husband home for the holiday (usually to one of his sisters homes). They never seem to tell him ahead of time which years they are getting together so we don't know until he makes his calls home on Christmas day. Sometimes I wonder if he misses it all.
When we lived in NY we would gather with our families, since we all had the day off. What I don't have is the hustle and bustle that leads up to December 25. I rarely need to decide on which party to go to. Here in Idaho they don't know what to make of us so they leave us alone. By New Year everything is back to normal. I do not have to do Christmas shopping for anyone but my mother in law. And I don't want to send her the package until she is home again. The grand extraviganza just doesn't happen in the Holmes household.
What will happen is that we will spend time together as a family. We eagerly await the arrival of our middle son. We will play games. My husband will call his family. My oldest son will probably spend the day with his girlfriend. It is a bit lonlier then it has been in the past as the boys grow up and live their own lives. I know we will all be together for New Years and I will make a fondue. So I enjoy the quiet gentle time that the holiday season is for us. It will be festive in its own quiet way....
I looked at the calander and apparently Chanukah starts around Thanksgiving next year. That means the holiday seasons will not overlap.... Guess I will make potato pancakes with turkey....
I hope you all have a very good Holiday season. I think I will.
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