Celebrating Chanukah

Growing up, I had a mother with Jewish roots and a father with Catholic roots.  My parents decided, for my sisters and me, to rear us without any religious connections.  Therefore, come December, we were among the most envied group of children, because we celebrated both Chanukah and Christmas.  Our celebrations of these holidays were, for the most part, secular.  But I have extremely fond memories of both holidays.  During the eight days of Chanukah, we joined with family friends and ate a wonderful meal, latkes being my personal favorite.  We lit the candles on the menorah every night and recited a Hebrew prayer.  Instead of receiving gifts for each night (after we were older), we all contributed money to a bowl in our living room near the menorah, and then donated it to a different charity each year.  My memories of Christmas revolve mostly around singing carols with my sisters.  We would turn off all of the lights in our living room except for the Christmas tree lights, then sing for what seemed like hours.  To be honest, I still long for those moments.  I'd do anything to recreate those moments.  Before my tears flow any longer, I better get to the point of this post.

Despite being a Christian family, we have decided to include Chanukah in our family traditions.  It was never a religious holiday for me growing up, but I have such wonderful memories of it.  I didn't want to drop my family tradition just because we're not a practicing Jewish family.  I wasn't as a child either, after all.  Here are some pictures of our Menorah and the kids' one Chanukah gift for the year.  I told them the Chanukah story, we lit the candles, I recited the Hebrew prayer, read them the prayer translated to English and enjoyed watching the lights glow.  Alan and I are both glad to have Chanukah be a part of our December holiday traditions.