Usually Chanukah and Christmas come in close proximity, but this year Chanukah starts very early, with the first of the eight nights on Thursday. Ask Jewish and Christian children which are the most important festivals of their religious year, and doubtless these two festivals will appear.
Christmas surely should, but Chanukah, depending on how it is measured, should not. It is technically a minor festival, since it is not ordained in the Torah but marks a later historic event. Its significance has become inflated because of the competition. You get presents on only one night? We get them on eight.
Yet over the years, it has slowly dawned on me that the kids might be right after all. The fun festivals have more impact, light up the childhood years and are not associated with long services and complicated messages.
After all, the story is that the baddies (Seleucid-Greeks) desecrated the Jewish Temple, and the Jewish heroes (Maccabees) recaptured it and cleaned it out, but only found enough oil for one night. Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight nights, until new oil could be made. So now we put the Chanukah menorah in the window each year to publicise the miracle. Right?
Read the article by Jonathan Keren-Black in The Age.