December Dilemma

Yael: Why don't we celebrate Christmas? Everyone else gets to go to Santa's house.

Sam: Because we're Jewish, not Christian!

Okay, I must admit to being totally shocked by this conversation. Let's remember that the children involved are ages THREE and FIVE (newly minted five, by the way), they frankly don't know a lot of non-Jews in their lives, and I can't remember ever even saying the word "Santa"...ever?

Okay, so why the "dilemma"?

I didn't want to say - we don't need Christmas, we have Chanukah! Truthfully, I don't really think that way.

This, to me, is the big dilemma of the season. I'm not interested in offering my kids an "alternative" to Christmas. I'm just interested in living my ordinary Jewish life. It doesn't mean that I'm not acknowledging the "season" that never seems to quiet down...it's impossible to ignore. But I've never felt a need to start making comparisons or justifications...

'Tis the Season for....Shabbat?

So it's not as bad as this...

but this is what I saw at Whole Foods on Friday when I went to pick up a challah:



What is up with that?

As NancyKay Shapiro put it so perfectly in her post on the Chanukah Ham (or is that Cham?), "it's just the Department of Monumental Cluelessness, Well-Meaning Division."

Yeah, that's it.