Before writing this, I took a minute to look around my house. There are tiny lights wrapped around the banisters while others flicker across the mantelpiece. The family room is dotted with candles. Cardboard cutouts hang over the mirrors in the living room. Outside, a kaleidoscope light shines up on the house creating a festive pattern.
The dining room is ready for a party. Patterned plates and napkins with brightly colored cups are ready to be used by friends later this week. I’m dusting off the special china for its annual appearance.
Although everything looks OK, I’m secretly horrified. I’m guilty of the one thing I hate, the Christmasification of Hanukkah.
When I was little, my parents faced a running battle at this time of year. As one of only a handful of Jewish children in a secular school, I was desperate to fit in with my friends. My mother banned me from singing Christmas carols, any decorations made in school were not allowed to be displayed in the house and the one year I was able to take part in the school nativity play, it was on the condition I played a tree.
Mum finally relented just a little by telling me we might get something small for Christmas, but only if Santa Claus had anything left after delivering toys to everyone else. This usually took the form of a selection pack from Woolworth’s filled with chocolate bars.
In those days Hanukkah was not the Jewish Christmas. It was simply a holiday that took place around that time of year. Since the Jewish religion follows a lunar calendar, the dates can fall any time from late November through December. This year it runs from Dec. 12 to 19.
Hanukkah is not a festival that commemorates the birth of a religion. It simply recognizes a miracle that occurred during the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at the time of Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. During a siege, the Maccabees were running dangerously low on oil; the miracle was they were able to make it last eight days when they only really had enough for one.
One thing Hanukkah does share with Christmas are traditions. There are festive foods and presents, songs and games, and naturally children are spoiled rotten. But when did the merchandising start? The ugly sweater movement is moving into Hanukkah faster than a pair of electric knitting needles.
When did Hanukkah cookies become a thing? Does the Elf on the Shelf really need to fight for shelf space with the Mensch on a Bench? In an age when birthday cards are replaced by Happy Birthday on Facebook walls, do we really need to compete with the Christmas card market? If the festival took place in July, would we care as much?
I think there are a few reasons for this. First, many Jewish parents feel their children are missing out by not celebrating Christmas like their friends. Second, I don’t know of any Western religion that bans commercialism. Third, with growing trends in interfaith marriages, it gives the two festivals equal footing. Star of David tree toppers and Hanukkah ornaments are not hard to find even in a place like Naperville, where Jews are more of a minority that they were in my hometown in England.
Having said all that, maybe the Christmasification has helped make Hanukkah more visible here in Naperville. For the past several years there has been a menorah by the Dandelion fountain, right across from the nativity scene. Hanukkah lasts eight days and each day an extra candle is lit.
Chabad of Naperville has taken it one step further. This year they had an ice carver fashion a giant menorah at the Riverwalk amphitheater, although I can’t help but wonder why it didn’t melt under the heat of the candles.
Chabad Rabbi Mendy Goldstein said: “The message of Hanukkah is beautiful and timeless — good over evil, light over dark. One of the spiritual goals of Hanukkah is to publicize the miracle of the oil and to increase light in the world. By lighting the menorah for all to see, we are sharing the spirit of increasing light— both spiritually and in the physical world. Lighting the menorah publicly lends itself to increasing Jewish pride. We’re acknowledging the Jewish presence in the community.”
Rabbi Mendy doesn’t think Christmas should affect the way Jews celebrate.
“Judaism and Jewish holidays have so much richness and tradition. There are existing rituals for all of our holidays,” he said. “There’s already so much to learn and to do around Judaism that we don’t have a need to look elsewhere for ideas.”
At Congregation Beth Shalom on Fifth Avenue, members celebrated with a Latkes and Tapas party. Traditional Jewish foods are many things, but healthy isn’t one of them. Thanks to that oil miracle, we eat more fried foods that normal at Hanukkah, particularly jelly-filled sugar donuts called sufganiyot and the better-known latke potato pancakes. Rabbi Marc Rudolph explained to me that the story of Hanukkah isn’t even told in the Old Testament but in the Christian bible.
“Hanukkah is not considered a major Jewish holiday from a theological perspective. Therefore, Hanukkah is not nearly as important, religiously, for Jews as Christmas is for Christians,” Rudolph said.
“One thing both holidays have in common in our country is that both have become increasingly commercialized and secularized. Instead of the emphasis being on the spiritual gifts inherent in each holiday, the focus seems to be on the material gifts that we give and receive to and from one another.”
That said, Hanukkah does have its charms, he said.
“The lighting of candles each night, the exchanges of gifts, the special foods, the symbols, the thrilling story of Hanukkah and the proximity to Christmas all make this an extremely popular holiday for Jews to observe,” he said. “If it takes this for Jews to be drawn to observe a Jewish holiday, who could object to that? I’m all for it!”
Like the spinning dreidel, people land wherever they may and everyone’s happy. After all we are only talking about a holiday. But would we be as ambivalent if Christians started to eat latkes with their Christmas ham or lit menorahs with red and green candles? What if Santa sat in malls in a blue and white suit exclaiming, “Have I got a toy for you!”
I’m all for people of different faiths getting along. But as for traditions, doesn’t respecting each other’s while keeping our own increase the light in everyone’s world?
Hilary Decent is a freelance writer who moved to Naperville from England a decade ago.
