<p>I’m Jewish and I enjoy receiving Christmas cards that do not have overtly religious messages. Snowflakes, decorated trees, pictures of candy canes, etc. - might be associated with Christmas but have no truly religious context; I don’t find my religious sensibilities challenged by the Easter Bunny either. I don’t “celebrate” the religious holiday of Christmas but I do certainly get time off, party invitations and gifts, even in the odd years when Chanukah falls in November – so it is quite possible for me to have a “merry Christmas” even without a Christmas tree or decorations on my house. </p>
<p>I assume that my Christian friends who send their own personalized, printed cards have paid as sum of money to print up a bunch, and I certainly would rather have their personalized card with the picture of their family on it under the words “Merry Christmas” – than some impersonal hallmark card with a menorah or dreidel on the front that they bought so as not to offend my sensibilities.</p>
<p>That being said… I’d rather not get the cards with the nativity scenes or the explicitly religious messages. So it really does depend on the card. Since the purpose of a card is to convey a message, then I think that the answer to the question depends on the specific message that the card conveys… but to me the mere reference to the name of the holiday certainly is not offensive. I mean… I certainly wouldn’t want to be left out of festivities by well-meaning friends who assumed that as a Jew I wouldn’t want to be invited to their Christmas party.</p>
<p>We are Jewish. There are Christmas cards we get year after year from relatives who have a religious agenda, hoping we will finally see the light and accept the dominance of their holiday and the “rightness” of their religion. Those are annoying.</p>
<p>But generic season’s greetings cards (or even overtly religious cards) from people who genuinely wish us well and want to stay in touch…no problem at all. :)</p>
<p>And to the above posters who say they would be happy to get Happy Diwali or Ramadan (actually it’s the feast at the END of Ramadan that is celebrated) cards…come on. Wouldn’t you be just a little puzzled?</p>
<p>Edit: I have never seen a Diwali card, but perhaps Hallmark hasn’t gotten to that market yet.</p>
<p>Similarly, what often does offend me is <em>the Christmas resume</em> as I call it. The terribly impersonal form letter that lists Johnny and Jane’s accomplishments throughout the yr.
Jane got a promotion at her job
Johnny developed a new cure for cancer
Little Timmy’s baseball team won sectionals.
Uncle Bob got out of prison
Cindy Lou got a new tattoo</p>
<p>If that’s what the sender thinks is a personal holiday greeting- well I’d ask him to think again. Getting me “caught up” on their life and their achievements isn’t a personal holiday greeting.</p>
<p>Some of these resumes even start off “Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah or Happy Kwanzaa”. How insulting. I understand one can’t guess another’s choice of religion usually, by looking, but come on! If the sender doesn’t know me well enough to know I am not an American of African ancestry, then why is he sending me any Greetings? If we’re close enough for him to send personal holiday greetings, then we should be close enough for him to know that I do not speak Swahili. So why in the world would I be likely to celebrate a holiday for Americans of African ancestry? To me, such a broad, catch-all heading on the <em>resume</em> is screaming “Here’s your form letter, we really don’t care who you are.” and isn’t that the OPPOSITE of what a personal greeting is supposed to say?</p>
<p>In the Op’s case, I concur with many others to send a broad “season’s greetings” or a “Happy new year” card.</p>
<p>“wishing them a happy celebration for the holiday they celebrate?”</p>
<p>Here’s the thing, though. Sending cards and giving annual updates to old friends has nothing whatsoever to do with Hanukkah. To the extent that anybody in the US is sending Hanukkah cards, it’s a borrowing of a Christian-derived tradition, plain and simple. So you aren’t respecting my tradition if you send me a Hanukkah card – you’re remolding my tradition into a shape like yours.</p>
<p>As I said before, I view all cards as welcome expressions of friendship (unless they are proselytizing). So I wouldn’t mind getting a Hanukkah card OR a Christmas card. But Hanukkah is a nothing-special holiday in the Jewish calendar. If you’re really trying to wish happy holidays to a Jewish person when it counts to them, you should send them a card at Rosh Hoshana, rather than squeezing them into your Christmas-based schedule.</p>
<p>Otherwise, let’s all acknowledge that we’ve developed a secular American tradition of expressing good will toward old friends in late December, when all of us have time off from work, and take all cards sent in that spirit, in that spirit.</p>
<p>Well, if you want to get technical about what Hanukah means, it doesn’t really celebrate a warm-fuzzy-happy-family-round-the-fire time. It commemorates a violent uprising.</p>
<p>My mother taught me long ago not to take offense when no offense is intended. (Nowadays, there are certainly enough occasions in which offense is intended!) This goes for Christmas cards, as well as the clerk wishing me a Merry Christmas, etc., or for my kids having Christmas vacation. We all know what all the commotion is about at this time of year, and Chanukah isn’t it. It’s a minor holiday that’s become major only because of Christmas.</p>
<p>
You could consider it that way, or you could consider that it celebrates a victory for religious freedom. Kind of like the 4th of July.</p>
<p>OP - You can send a Christmas card with a note inside wishing your friends a happy Chanukah.</p>
<p>I always pick out a card that says “Peace on Earth” to send to all of my friends and relatives. I know it is probably a unachievable thing, but this is what I always hope for. I hope that doesn’t offend anyone.</p>
<p>l. My H, when wished “Merry Christmas” in a store, just smiles and says, “To you!”
because he knows it was meant to be nice, not nasty. But those are strangers.
Among friends, yes it does seem odd to receive a Christmas card, and leaves us feeling that the sender is a bit dense, even if they are also nice.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The 25th of Kislev (the Hebrew lunar month we are in now…) is always Chanukah. There is absolutely no crossover significance in that coincidence. It just amuses and amazes me sometimes. Answering others, “Why is Chanukah so early this year?” I might say, “Why is December so late?”</p></li>
<li><p>There was a time when the story of Chanukah was morphed by the Talmudic-era rabbis who lived under Roman rule. They downplayed the military significance (a revolt against Greece that succeeded) because they didn’t want to alarm the Romans by repeating our victory against the Syrian/Greeks. As evidence, the Book of Maccabees describes the military victory and subsequent
rededication of the altar in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in much detail, but never mentions a cruse of oil that lasted eight days. That oil miracle was emphasized later, when rabbis of the Talmudic era wished to play up the inner/spiritual miracle (that happened inside the Temple…) rather than the miracle of a guerilla victory upon the battlefield. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>If you are at West Point, look at the statues of generals. One is for Judah Maccabee, whose military strategies invented guerilla warfare and are studied for
their brilliance. </p>
<p>To me, the miracle is that we’re still celebrating Jewish holidays at all.</p>
<p>^^BB - just came home from singing tonight’s Haftarah, selected for this night by rabbis of the 3-6th century, from the book of the Prophet Zachariah, around chapter 4. </p>
<p>After describing the menorah, that text continues (from memory here, hope the words are nearly exact): “Not by might, not by power, but by Your Spirit…shall there be peace.” </p>
<p>BB, you are in great company when you hope for “Peace on Earth” as the great message of a holiday that began to celebrate a military victory against a tyrannical regime, in order to re-establish religious freedom in Jerusalem. Several hundred years after the actual events, Jewish leaders chose to re-focus and emphasize its spiritual message, with the ultimate destination: Peace.</p>
<p>Hanna- I have a friend who is a devote Christian. She sends me a Happy New Year card every Rosh Shoshana. I don’t get a Christmas or Hannukah card from her. I assume she sends them to her Christian friends. I appreciate her taking the time and also the acknowledgement that Jews have different holidays.
Though I don’t have a problem getting Christmas cards.
My husband sends out some end of the year cards to clients and employees. He looks for cards that say Happy New Year or Wishing Peace with a nature themed graphic.
The oddest was the year my D participated in a secret santa at school. The girl who got my D sent her a variety of items including a wind up Santa toy. The girl knew my D was Jewish as did the Mom. The Mom was actually born Jewish so should have known better.</p>
<p>And there it is. I’ve been looking all over for the perfect inscription for my cards this year, and I’d finally settled on this, from a Robert Burns poem, though it didn’t feel quite right:</p>
<p>“…I heard nae mair, for Chanticleer
Shook off the pouthery snaw,
And hail’d the morning with a cheer,
A cottage-rousing craw.
But deep this truth impress’d my mind—
Thro’ all His works abroad,
The heart benevolent and kind
The most resembles God.”</p>
<p>Zechariah 4:6 sums it up much better.
The Catholic translation is:
Then he said to me, “This is the L-rd’s message to Zerubbabel: Not by an army, nor by might, but by my spirit, says the L-rd of hosts.”</p>
<p>And so I’m led from that to a Celtic blessing:
“If there is righteousness in the heart,
there will be beauty in the character.
If there is beauty in the character,
there will be harmony in the home.
If there is harmony in the home,
there will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
there will be peace in the world.
So let it be.”</p>
<p>And that’s what’s going in my cards this year.</p>
<p>Thanks, all. Peace be with you now and in the coming year.</p>
<p>I had no idea so many Jews thought of Santa as a part of Christmas. I mean, well . . . I know he’s part of the Christmas myth, I just always thought of him as a neutral/secular part of it, like snow-covered trees and horse-drawn sleighs, rather than a religious part of it. I’m glad I read this thread . . . Now I know! :)</p>
<p>It’s amazing how many cultures claim the below. The earlier post quoting it was the first time I’ve seen it attributed to the Celtics. I’ve also seen it attributed to Confucious and the Buddha.</p>
<p>I agree that it’s a wonderful sentiment for a holiday greeting card.</p>
<p>“If there is righteousness in the heart,
there will be beauty in the character.
If there is beauty in the character,
there will be harmony in the home.
If there is harmony in the home,
there will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
there will be peace in the world.
So let it be.”</p>
<p>I get late December cards from Jewish and Christian friends, and probably from an atheist or two as well. I love them all (the cards and the friends!)</p>
<p>I sometimes send different cards to different people; some years my Christmas cards are more Christmassy than other years, so if the cards specifically say “Christmas,” I have Happy Holidays/Let it snow cards that I use for Jewish friends.</p>
It’s not that Santa is a religious part of it. We know that it’s a more secular piece. But he’s still a symbol of Christmas and the Christmas spirit that has nothing to do with us. Just like a Christmas tree is not a religious symbol, but most Jews don’t have them because they are a part of Christmas (except for a short period in the late 60’s when “Chanukah bushes” were a big thing). An excellent kid’s book that talks about it is [Amazon.com:</a> There’s No Such Thing as a Chanukah Bush, Sandy Goldstein (9780807578636): Susan Sussman, Charles Robinson: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Theres-Thing-Chanukah-Sandy-Goldstein/dp/0807578630]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Theres-Thing-Chanukah-Sandy-Goldstein/dp/0807578630)</p>
<p>Now, egg nog and ribbon candy is a whole different story!</p>
<p>I’m Jewish, and I agree with DonnaL and Hanna. Although most of us don’t celebrate Christmas, we certainly dont take offense at receiving Christmas cards. I enjoy getting Christmas cards (especially cards with photos!) from non-Jewish friends. I would hand-write a non-religious “Happy New Year” message in the card you send to your Jewish friends, whatever4. </p>
<p>As for whether non-Jews would feel offended or perplexed to receive a Happy Chanukah card, I have two thoughts. First, most Jews do not send Chanukah cards, even to other Jews. The whole idea of sending greeting cards for Chanukah is completely non-traditional an American invention that is strictly derivative of Christmas. Second, Jews get that theyre a minority and that the majority does not celebrate Chanukah (which, ironically, is a minor holiday in Judaism). So even those Jews who do send out Chanukah cards would probably not send them to non-Jewish friends. I can imagine that most non-Jews would be puzzled to receive a Chanukah card. Offended? I hope not.</p>
<p>(cringe…cringe…AnudduhMom writhes in guilt-induced agony)</p>
<p>But…but…I’d have to drop my compulsive CCing to do it! Hey wait! Maybe I can do it on CC and just copy and paste into a Holiday Email! Yeah! That could work.</p>
<p>So check one or more:</p>
<p>__ Happy Diwali
__ Happy Hanukkah
__ Merry Christmas
__ Happy Kwanzaa
__ Eid Mubarak
__ Happy New Year
…and for those in the U.K. who have to have everything different, including small mince pies for “each of the 12 days of Christmas”:
__ Happy Crimbo</p>
<p>Lots of:
__ Love
__ Affection
__ Good thoughts
__ Happy handshakes
__ Waving at you from my car</p>
<p>From:
__ Your loved one
__ Your colleague
__ Your patient
__ The dog and cat’s mommy
__ The class parent
__ The person whose driveway you shovel</p>
<p>There! Done and sorted. I have to go lie down now. I’m exhausted from this holiday whirlwind.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone, for your input. It shouldn’t have surprised me that the Jewish cc members who responded were not in agreement regarding whether it was OK to send Christmas cards to Jewish families, just as Christian cc members were not in agreement on the same question – or on virtually any other question asked. Not everyone thinks and looks at things the same, regardless of religious (or other) affiliation.</p>
<p>Our family photo Christmas card this year is pretty secular (a winter scene), but it does say “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.” I just sent the photo and a different “Season’s Greetings” card with a note to our new Jewish friends. If I had sent the Christmas card, I am sure they would have graciously known that it was sent with only friendly intentions. However, it did not take much effort to substitute a different card, so that’s what I did.</p>
<p>Again, thank you all for providing input and insight on this!</p>