{"id":24,"date":"2011-12-18T16:49:27","date_gmt":"2011-12-18T21:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mayahoodblog.com\/?p=24"},"modified":"2013-05-13T14:30:24","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T18:30:24","slug":"tis-the-season-of-chrismukkah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mayahoodblog.com\/tis-the-season-of-chrismukkah\/","title":{"rendered":"T’is the season of Chrismukkah"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

My first introduction to the wonderful term “Chrismukkah”<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s December, and that means that the holidays are upon us. I’m\u00a0Jewish and I married a non-Jew. My husband, John, describes himself as half-Jewish and half-Oshawa, the city he grew up in.\u00a0 This\u00a0also happens to be\u00a0partially the rational behind our son Kyle’s middle name – Joshua or Jew-Oshawa. Amazing – I know! As my husband doesn’t really have a religion, before we married we agreed to raise our kids Jewish with a little bit of Oshawa (those of you picturing a mullet flowing out the back of a Yamaka\u00a0– you’ve missed the\u00a0mark, those of you picturing a fair, blond-haired\u00a0jew who might be\u00a0half decent at sports – you’re likely closer, those of you wondering if Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez\u00a0will stay together and whether they should have an indoor or outdoor wedding – ummmmm\u00a0please return to\u00a0my blog*). However, the biggest contention we had was with regards to the Christmas tree. He wanted one, I didn’t. It’s not that I’m against the tree or Christmas; in fact, I really like Christmas with all of the beautiful lights, big turkey dinner\u00a0and the gifts (I LOVE buying gifts). Actually, it’s because of this reason that I didn’t want a tree in our home. I was worried that our kids would love Christmas more than Chanukkah. Also, my husband is lazy, so we would never put up a tree unless I did it. So the argument was settled and we were able to get married with all issues regarding religion settled (ya right!).<\/p>\n

One of the benefits of interfaith marriage is the holidays. You get to celebrate twice as much and you don’t have to worry about where you’ll be for the holiday. Unlike some of our friends who are constantly stressed and bound to tight schedules of going between one family to the next over a\u00a0two-day period, we never had to do that. Generally, Chanukkah doesn’t fall on the same day as Christmas. So we would spend Chanukkah at my parents and Christmas at John’s parents’ cottage.<\/p>\n

For me, the best part about this time of the year is the many family traditions of both holidays.\u00a0 I love that in Chanukkah, which I\u2019ve celebrated since I was born; we eat latkes\u00a0and sofganiot\u00a0(big donuts without the hole filled with Jam) during a big family dinner where everyone talks over one another.\u00a0 The dinner is usually preceded by lighting of the Menorah and singing some Chanukkah songs in Hebrew.\u00a0 I should probably mention that no one in my family, with the exception of my mom, can actually sing to a tune.\u00a0 So whenever we get to the high-pitch parts, we all just kind of stop singing and look around at one another, but just for a moment, until we all join back in as if nothing weird just happened. This year, like last year, my older brother and his family (which includes 3 kids and 1 on the way) who live in Edmonton are coming in for the holiday.\u00a0 I love the new element of the young generation.\u00a0 It reminds me of some of the traditions that I have given up since I \u201cgrew up\u201d including playing the dreidel and opening up gifts.\u00a0 Actually, come to think of it, my brothers and I never received any gifts, just a few dollars.\u00a0 I think toy gifts were introduced only once we moved to Canada in order to compete with Christmas (see \u2013 my fear is true!).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kyle’s 1st Chanukkah<\/p><\/div>\n

My favourite part about Christmas is spending time up at the cottage.\u00a0 There\u2019s something amazing about cozying up on a couch next to a wood burning stove with a drink and great company.\u00a0 Some of my fondest traditions are those that John and his brothers have done since they were little;\u00a0on Christmas morning, we\u00a0reenact a run-in\u00a0from the stairs to the gifts.\u00a0 We have to reenact this because now that we\u2019re older, we all wake up at different times.\u00a0 The run-in usually results in a lot of pushing, shoving, screams and tons of laughs.\u00a0 I also love that John\u2019s parents go to the effort of getting a kosher turkey for dinner.\u00a0 His mom even makes me the mashed potatoes dairy free (the rules of kosher do not allow for mixing of meat and dairy in the same meal).\u00a0 Over the 8 years that John and I have been together, his family traditions of celebrating Christmas have changed as well.\u00a0 John\u2019s mom used to fill everyone\u2019s stockings with soooooo\u00a0many gifts that a pillow bag used to accompany the stocking.\u00a0 His parents have now opted for a family ski trip to Tremblant\u00a0as the Christmas gift, so the stockings are no longer filled the same way as they once were (with very good reason, but one that John protests every year leading up to the holiday).\u00a0 We also started doing a Chris-cringle, so we each just buy a gift for one person only.\u00a0 And of course, we now have Kyle, the only\u00a0grand-kid on John\u2019s side of the family, who will probably be ripping through the gifts this year, and add another new exciting element to the holiday celebrations (can you say spoiled much?).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The run-in (Kyle’s first Christmas at the cottage)<\/p><\/div>\n

I think the best part is that now as a family, we can make our own (new) family traditions.\u00a0 I hope that Kyle will look forward to them for many years to come as much as I do.\u00a0 What are some of your favourite family traditions (new or old) during this time of the year?<\/p>\n

* Outdoor obviously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s December, and that means that the holidays are upon us. I’m\u00a0Jewish and I married a non-Jew. My husband, John, describes himself as half-Jewish and half-Oshawa, the city he grew up in.\u00a0 This\u00a0also happens to be\u00a0partially the rational behind our son Kyle’s middle name – Joshua or Jew-Oshawa. Amazing – I know! As my husband […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34934352,5309],"tags":[471892,137227457,494943,15607,21525,137227456,462715,8853,4325,258906,1574880,34920942,36700],"class_list":{"0":"post-24","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-holidays-2","8":"category-parenting","9":"tag-chanukkah","10":"tag-children","11":"tag-chrismukkah","12":"tag-christmas","13":"tag-christmas-tree","14":"tag-family","15":"tag-hanukkah","16":"tag-holiday","17":"tag-holidays","18":"tag-jew","19":"tag-oshawa","20":"tag-parenting-2","21":"tag-traditions","22":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nT'is the season of Chrismukkah - Mayahood<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mayahoodblog.com\/tis-the-season-of-chrismukkah\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"T'is the season of Chrismukkah\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s December, and that means that the holidays are upon us. 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