<p>Good for you, second spring! Had the same conversation at dinner last night with a cousin who attempted to “raise awareness” last week at a Christmas Tree Shop and a Walgreens. My mother wrote a letter to the editor of Better Homes and Gardens a few weeks back explaining to her that not all of her readership celebrates Christmas and that the December issue contained no content (other than a product plug for a Chanukah cookie cutter) that was of relevance to her. Editor wrote back to take it up with circulation department if she’s interested in canceling subscription.</p>
<p>Well, I have to put in a plug here. My son went to Catholic school all his life. One of the fund raisers was a Sally Foster Gift Wrapping drive. There were plenty of Hanukkah decorations, wrapping paper, cards, in there.</p>
<p>LOL- Our jewish day school sold Sally Foster stuff too. Hannukah and Christmans items.</p>
<p>Finally came up with a gift for DS#2 for Hannukah. Older s already got 2 gifts. Younger s couldnt give me any ideas. Sooo… and please scrape me off the floor b/c I can’t believe I did this, but I ordered 4 tickets for the Falcons-Saints game on Dec 27. Even with discount deals I found, these suckers are expensive!!! If older s goes out of town as he is possibly planning, younger s will “have” to find a friend to bring along to the game. Needless to say, he is not worried. He said to me “this is a <em>big</em> game.” I said, “yes, I KNOW!!”</p>
<p>Hey, I always put up a Christmas tree no matter what, so I definitely think that Jewish CC members should light Hannukah candles no matter what as well.</p>
<p>Well… uh oh… am a few days behind…</p>
<p>In high school, my D was not too happy that she had to sing one XMas song after another for the chorus concerts (chorus is a class, not an EC), and even the audience is asked to end the concert with a rendition of Silent Night. Then, she had to go around the school singing Christmas carols. So, D spoke up to the chorus teacher (who is also the music dept. head and 30 year teacher at this school), and asked about some balance such as Hanukah songs. The teacher said if she wanted those, that D had to research them and find the sheet music and bring them in. You’d think a public school chorus teacher would have experience and access to finding choral pieces of Hanukah songs? D couldn’t believe she had to be responsible to find this for the teacher if she wanted it, not to mention the teacher should have created a song selection to encompass and be inclusive of all students or else chosen more secular songs for the season. </p>
<p>In K, the project one day was writing letters to Santa to put under the class XMas tree. D was not gonna be into that either as Santa is not our holiday and he doesn’t visit our house. So, I volunteered to come to class to provide an alternative project, making Hanukah cards, which turned out to be pretty popular with all the kids, as it were. </p>
<p>I likely should not get started on this topic as it was a source of frustration for my kids year after year in school at this time of year.</p>
<p>I’ve always wondered, what the difference between Chanukah and Hanukkah? I’m guessing it’s just a spelling difference. But why is that?</p>
<p>According to yelp:
I go back and forth in the spelling. Consistently inconsistent :)</p>
<p>Although I enjoy Hanukah and now have the return from college of S1 to look forward to - December is not my favorite month. Even living in a reasonably Jewish area - Christmas just so dominates everything - from radio stations and tv specials/commercials - to mall decorations, etc. And I can’t stand the way everywhere you go people want to wish you a “Merry Christmas”. Apparently there has been enough pressure on retailers from right-wing groups that stores are mentioning Christmas now in ads and in person - rather than going with a more generic “Happy Holidays”. And certainly Jews are a tiny minority and Christmas is the holiday that drives retail sales - so I get it - it just bugs me enormously.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I am happy not to be going crazy shopping for all sorts of relatives and I am happy not to be facing the resulting credit card bills in January. I think I just need to play the Maccabeats song a few more times and chill!</p>
<p>I am late to this thread but want to wish everyone a very happy Hanukah! </p>
<p>I mentioned this on another thread but D1 (sophmore in college across the country) skypes with us each night of Hanukah. We light the candles and say the prayer together and open our presents (I send hers in advance). Sometimes we skype for just a few minutes and other nights we get to “hang out” for awhile longer, depending on her or my other D’s schedules. D2 is a senior in high school and she just assumes this is the way it’ll be for her next year…apparently there’s a service like Skype where you can connect with more than one person at a time (oovoo or something like that). I feel fortunate to get to spend Hanukah this way…I’m missing D1!</p>
<p>We do hear a token Hanukah song in the annual “holiday programs” most years but, really, like others are saying, it’s really all about Christmas everywhere you look. I get so excited when I see a small display of Hanukah items at Target or Bed, Bath and Beyond!</p>
<p>Happy 4th night everyone!</p>
<p>“D2 is a senior in high school and she just assumes this is the way it’ll be for her next year”</p>
<p>actually, Chanukah starts on Dec 21st next year; she will be home…</p>
<p>@Toblin and jym, I am doubting yelp’s explanation. “Chanukah” comes from the Hebrew root word “chinuch” meaning “dedication.” Both words begin with the Hebrew letter “CHET” that has a guttural pronunciation of “ch.” </p>
<p>Saying “ch” is an art best introduced early in life. Rather than saying “ch” like “choo-choo train,” try instead to channel a cat dislodging a hairball from its throat. Alternatively, refer to how “ch” would be pronounced in Polish (Lech Walensza) or German (achtung!/attention!) </p>
<p>“Ch” is hard for English speakers. So in America, in transliteration, the Hebrew holiday name “Chanukah” began to be written sometimes as Hannukah, so non-Hebrew speakers could get closer to saying it; “h” is less wrong than a choo-choo train interpretation. </p>
<p>Also English speakers see that transliteration, Hannukah, and tend to put the heaviest accent on the first, not second, syllable. That’s where it’s accented in Hebrew, too. Otherwise people see “chanukah” and accent the “NU.” Then it rhymes with “bazookah” like this: cha-NOO-kah. Not even close.</p>
<p>If someday someone could help me say something in Mandarin or Urdu, I’d be so grateful. I’ve been explaining “ch” a lot of years. Languages are a challenge. CH-allenge.</p>
<p>My son will be arriving home from Europe on Sunday afternoon, and I am very much looking forward to lighting the candles with him in the evening. Or maybe even earlier, if he can’t stay awake that long!</p>
<p>rockvillemom - I always say I am happiest being a Jew during the Christmas season! No pressure, no childhood memories that I’m trying to live up to, no family gatherings that often turn “bad” etc. </p>
<p>When I was a kid Christmas was the most boring day of the year! I grew up in a neighborhood that was 99.9% Jewish with many electric menorahs decorating the windows, no lights. My family would drive around to other neighborhoods to look at lights for entertainment. When I got to high school my world expanded and there were plenty of non-Jews. We would go around singing Christmas carols and some of my fondest memories are of those nights.</p>
<p>Now, I enjoy the songs and decorations but mostly I enjoy the freedom and lack of pressure during this stressful time of year.</p>
<p>PS - We do have a family Chanukah party every year but are flexible in that we wait until whomever is in college is home. One year for a variety of reasons we celebrated in July, after one niece graduated college! Presents are bought for all but they have to be under $20 and homemade is fine. We enjoy it, (well maybe not my husband so much!) low expectations take the pressure off.</p>
<p>amtc - good attitude - I am taking note.</p>
<p>^^Good, I think the healthier way for non-Christians to deal with all the Christmas stuff is embrace any parts of the holiday you personally like and leave behind the rest - like they do in Japan.</p>
<p>When I was younger I lived for four years in a country that is predominantly Muslim. At our house we did all the regular Christian and American holidays, but of course we were surrounded on all sides by celebrations of Islamic holidays. Ramadan was always a Very Big Deal. Good for them and good for us. No need to feel oppressed or bothered by anything, and no need for them to tone down all their celebrations for our sake. Being drenched in someone else’s holidays is a natural part of being a religious minority. It’s not going to go away, and being upset about it helps no one.</p>
<p>Invite some of your Christian friends over for a Hanukah candle lighting. They’ll probably love it. I know I would. Be happy! It’s the Holidays!</p>
<p>Besides my two college kids being gone, H is traveling and gone through Hanukah. Its been weird. My younger two have activities but we’ve lit candles every night and opened presents. My D complained that I haven’t made latkes, but she hasn’t been home for dinner to even eat them (Nutcracker season) and may not be for the rest of the holiday (debate tournament next weekend…) oh well. It will be brisket and latkes when the rest of the family gets home
for those of you with Satellite radio, make sure you listen to the Hanukah channel. It definitely gets you in the mood. Its 28 or 76- normally the Escape channel
I sent gifts to the S in one box when he left Thanksgiving. Flying Southwest, it was free! My D is in London. I tried to send her something from Banana’s UK website and it wanted a UK billing address for my visa card. Urban won’t work for ordering on their US site and gift card concept hasn’t seem to catch on there. She will have to wait until she gets home.
I know we can’t control the calendar, it just seems too early to be Chanukah.</p>
<p>Thanks for the explanation, p3t. I grew up spelling it Chanukah, and pronounced it as if I was about to hock a loogie, but living in the south now, I’ve “softened” the pronunciation and flip flop on spelling. That said, since my kids attended a jewish day school for elementary school, we were engrained that we didn’t light a menorah, but rather a channukiah on this holiday (the 9 branched candelabra as opposed to the traditional 7 branched one, to hold the 8 candles plus the shamash, to explain to those who do not know this, as I know p3t does), so tend to still pronounce it with the gutteral sound.</p>
<p>^ cool! If the SAT-I still had analogy questions, we could say:<br>
menorah:channukiah = light fixture:chandelier.
Menorah is a very general category, channukiah a very specific type of menorah.</p>
<p>@coureur, IMHO you should patent/bronze/copywrite your post #56. I couldn’t agree more. </p>
<p>So who eats latkes with applesauce v. sour cream? THERE’s a searing question for the ages.</p>
<p>Sour cream all the way-- although I grew up with only applesauce as an option and never even knew about sour cream (my mom wasn’t much of a cook) until I was an adult. Now we are an applesauce-free zone.</p>