<p>The promise of latkes may have enticed S to attend the Hannukah party at his school. </p>
<p>My b/f found the smell of latkes in my hair appealing–a new perfume?</p>
<p>Probably nothing beats P3T’s childbirth experience.</p>
<p>Love the Rhymes with Orange strips! We are in the non-Jewish suburbs so maybe the grocery chain local store will have the advertised Chanukah products; maybe not. (I wanted those 5/$1 chocolate gelt.) I stopped and asked at the customer service counter:<br>
“Do you have a Chanukah display?”<br>
“A what?”
“Chanukah display like in the ad?”<br>
“I’ll check - <calls over=”" to=“” a=“” cashier=“”> Do we have a Chanukah display?"
“Heineken?” the cashier replies.
“Never mind” says I.</calls></p>
<p>The Chicago Tribune always has a “Holiday” cookie contest. This year a Chanukah cookie won! [First</a> place winner Lynn Levy wins cookie contest - chicagotribune.com](<a href=“http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/ct-cookie-contest-first-place-lynn-levy,0,7022085.story]First”>http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/ct-cookie-contest-first-place-lynn-levy,0,7022085.story)</p>
<p>Er, yeah…“Per cookie: 653 calories”</p>
<p>Better stick with the latkes.</p>
<p>And 55g fat! But according to the winner,
</p>
<p>I guess the winner never met my husband!</p>
<p>
That’s good old Jewish cooking for you!</p>
<p>The amusing part will come in about a week when all the Christmas frenzied people remember to thoughtfully wish their Jewish friends a Happy Chanukah instead of a Merry Christmas. Uh, sorry, you missed it, but thanks anyway!</p>
<p>I haven’t even finalized my Thanksgiving menu and am already thinking about this year’s Chanukah decorations. My mother always made our home special for Chanukah and I attempt to do the same each year. When I search online for new ideas, all I see are tacky five-and-dime type garlands or window decals, rather than tasteful, grown up decor. Sure, Pottery Barn has a nice table linen pattern and Crate and Barrel has a fun china pattern. But that’s about it. </p>
<p>Am I alone in decorating for this holiday? I’ve seen a couple of beautiful photos on Pinterest but they are few and far between.</p>
<p>This thread is almost 2 years old. If you don’t get any comments, you may want to start a new one.</p>
<p>You aren’t alone, but you are rare. Traditionally, Jewish holidays don’t involve decorating one’s home (a bedecked Sukkah being the one exception I can think of). Many Jews feel that any Chanukah decor will suggest a desire to copycat Christmas traditions, and they are loathe to go that route, especially since, unlike Christmas, Chanukah is a relatively minor holiday in the Jewish year. To me and many others, the more fuss that’s made over Chanukah (and I include extensive gift giving as fuss), the more it seems like a misguided attempt to compete with Christmas. (If Chanukah fell in March, I don’t think any decorations would be for sale, tacky or otherwise.) I do know several people who collect unusual menorahs and display them during Chanukah, but that’s as far as anyone I know will go. </p>
<p>We once had a nanny who thought it would be a great Chanukah project for the kids to outline our picture window with blue Christmas lights–we had to tell her that it wasn’t an appropriate way for our family to celebrate the holiday, but we realized she was missing the opportunity to “deck the halls” and encouraged her to go all out with Christmas decorations in her part of the house.</p>
<p>As a lifelong practicing Jew, thanks for the tutorial on my religion. Gee, I’d never heard that line of reasoning before.</p>
<p>OOh, I love that this thread gets revitalized each year! Chanukah starts on Dec. 8 this year. I thought that was early until I realized that next year it starts the day before Thanksgiving! :eek:</p>
<p>That’s horrifying, jym626! But you know what we say–Jewish holidays are either early or late, but they’re never on time.</p>
<p>At least my kids will be home for part of Chanukah next year. This year they’ll miss it altogether.</p>
<p>jym,
thanks for the heads up for next year!</p>
<p>I love having to explain to the people in my office that Jewish holidays don’t fall on recognizable “dates” on the calendar, because the Jewish calendar is so different.</p>
<p>The Jewish calendar is the lunar calendar, just like the Chinese calendar. The Chinese New Year falls on a different date in the Gregorian calendar. (The Gregorian calendar is the one we use routinely.)</p>
<p>What I’ve never understood is why Christmas is a fixed date, but Easter moves with the lunar calendar and is not a fixed date.</p>
<p>Worrywart, sounds like you keep the light alive.</p>
<p>Thanks for your kind comment, Deborah. If you’ve ever spent Chanukah in Jerusalem, there’s no more beautiful sight than a lit menorah in every home’s front window. I do my best to capture that sense of timeless tradition, community and celebration for my family.</p>
<p>Easter is always the first Sunday following the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. It’s tied in with Passover as well. I believe it’s always after passover. </p>
<p>Can someone tell me how Chanukah is determined?</p>
<p>Chanukah starts on the 25th of Kislev because of a reference that they stopped fighting that day. Kislev moves around the fixed calendar so Christmas is coming late this year. (It celebrates the Maccabee victory in battle.)</p>
<p>To me, the weird thing about the holiday is that most of us would likely have supported the other side. It’s been simplified over time but the conflict was, in a way, fundamentalists versus assimilated. Take out the propaganda about the impositions by the Syrians and it’s a civil war in part against the Hellenized Jews. That’s an old thread in Judaism: assimilation versus not, worldly culture versus narrow tradition. I like to say my family would likely have been on the losing side. C’est la vie.</p>
<p>Another oddity is that tradition used to be more to lighting all the candles at the start and then taking one out each day instead of adding 1 by 1. It makes more sense in terms of the stories: if they were trying to stretch out oil or candles or whatever, then they wouldn’t add more but would cut out 1 each day to save and stretch. </p>
<p>But of course the essential idea is that 8 days re-initiates the people by repeating the 8 day ritual we find in the essentials of circumcision and Passover (Pesach). This 8 day period was meant to insure, for example, that a boy lived through a Sabbath and thus could be taken as belonging to the family and community rather than belonging still to God. The 8 days of Hanukah also require a Sabbath and so say the community is rededicated in God’s eyes.</p>
<p>A cute - to me - story. We had a Hanukah party when my kids were little and our neighbors came over. Our neighbor was a grandma to our kids, particularly my youngest. Very Catholic family. Every party at their house was attended by at least one Jesuit - all of them great guys because Mary was a terrific judge of people. Mary watched us light the menorah and talked to her daughter Jackie. I can’t remember who went and got it but Mary handed us a menorah. She said, “I bought this years ago and never knew what it was.” It’s one of our special menorahs because we remember Mary (and Jackie) when we light it.</p>