Room at the Inn: How to Share the Holidays With Family Members of a Different Religion

Room at the Inn: How to Share the Holidays With Family Members of a Different Religion


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Two-generation multi-religious family celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah together. GETTY IMAGES Facebook Twitter LinkedIn


In the blur of the annual holidays, somehow it’s already December again. Millions of Americans — and many others around the world — are in the throes of shopping, cooking and decorating for


the next big event — Hanukkah or Christmas.


In preparation, some of us are scraping the remnants of last year’s wax off the Menorah. Some of us are searching for the Advent calendar or the box of Christmas ornaments stashed somewhere


in the attic.


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Some of us, like my family, are doing both.


For those who celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah, December can be an exhausting month, especially when Hanukkah comes early. In the solar-based Gregorian calendar, Hanukkah can begin on


any number of days between November 28 and December 27. This year, the Jewish holiday starts tonight, December 7, or the 25th of Kislev in the Hebrew calendar, which is based on the lunar


cycle.


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Whether or not Hanukkah and Christmas overlap or fall weeks apart, the holiday season is my favorite time of year. We host both a Hanukkah party and a Christmas dinner. Friends, family and


anyone needing a place to celebrate, whatever their religion, is welcome.


My 20-year-old self would be stunned by these developments. She enjoyed lighting the candles on each of the eight nights of Hanukkah. She loved the tradition of frying latkes (potato


pancakes) with her mom and sister. Although she could appreciate the beauty of the twinkling Christmas lights, she never hung an ornament on a tree.


My youthful me would have been shocked to learn that at age 30, after marrying a Catholic man, I would put up a Christmas tree in my living room, have an ornament with my name on it, and


bake cookies for Santa Claus.