When I was growing up, I always felt irritated when the kids at school looked shocked when they asked, “You don’t celebrate Christmas?!” To me, it wasn’t that big of a deal, it was just what I knew. I didn’t avoid fun celebrations or get-togethers with my friends, I just didn’t celebrate the actual holiday. Even now, people still assume I won’t take part in fun festivities like Secret Santa and Christmas parties just because I’m Jewish. Those assumptions will always annoy me, but one thing I’ve never been at all bothered by is people wishing me a Merry Christmas.
To me, “Merry Christmas” is the equivalent of “Have a great weekend” or “Enjoy the rest of your day.” It’s a nice, well-intentioned wish applied to a period of time. For the most part, when people wish me a Merry Christmas, I take it as, “I wish you a pleasant time over the festive period.”
Don’t get me wrong, it’s always nice if someone asks if I actually celebrate Christmas, because this generates interesting conversations. I’m happy to share my experiences of Hanukkah with others, but I also share my family’s version of Christmas. For instance, we don’t do Christmas presents, but we do have a delicious kosher Christmas dinner. One year we even had a tiny tree, which my mom brought home from work. It was made from tinsel and decorated with Quality Street wrappers. We called it our Hanukkah tree and kept it up for Christmas.
Read the article by Naomi Joseph on Yahoo Lifestyle.