Ah, December, the time of year when this Jewish girl turns somewhat defensive. It wasn't always this way. I grew up in South Florida, where large portions of the general population hailed from New York and were Jewish. Having so many kids like me around made Jewish holidays more normal, I suppose. And I always liked watching the boats all lit up on parade.
Then I went off to college at a well-regarded Midwestern school. There were Jewish kids there, of course, but somehow, I didn't really get to know many of them. At one point, I got so fed up with my friends talking Christmas this and planning Christmas that, that I asked for them to just once refer to the holidays as, well, THE HOLIDAYS.
I got a blank stare. "Some of us don't celebrate Christmas," I said, explaining I was Jewish. "Really? You don't look Jewish. You don't act Jewish." Needless to say, I was a bit perturbed about the whole situation and took to wearing my Jewish star necklace every December for years.
Now, it's my kids' turn to feel the December bah humbugs. Just take our recent trip to Disney, where the parade was entirely Christmas focused. Nipper, age 5, looked up at me innocently and asked why they didn't have anything about Hanukkah. At the airport on the way home, a TSA worker in the family line couldn't stop hounding them about Christas, even after the kids said they celebrate Hanukkah. Soon after, a woman in line to get on the plane did the same. After school, friends are abuzz with talk of putting up Christmas trees, asking when we're getting ours. I speak up for Pumpkin Pie, age 8, and say we don't put a tree up in our house. It's not such a big deal to 8-year-olds. They know that some kids celebrate Hanukkah, some Kwanzaa, some Christmas and some nothing at all. But, at the same time, my son knows who the other 3 Jewish kids in his grade are (out of roughly 60 kids). He knows that somehow, he's just a little different.
Maybe this is why I whip up a great batch of latkes every year and share with some of the neighbors. Or why I suggest to kindergarten teacher that there's a Jewish version of the gingerbread man that she can read to the kids, too. And why our rule of gifts under $5 seems to have sprung wider and bigger in the past couple of years. Or why I should probably bring the kids to some local Hanukkah celebration ... just so they can see lots of other kids are in the same boat as them.
Here's a list of those, by the way, around town:
- Hanukkah on the Ellipse: Music, latkes and donuts, dreidels and menorahs and more.
- Hanukkah Wonderland at Kentlands in Gaithersburg: Hosted by Chabad of Upper Montgomery County. Events run throughout the holiday.
- Lights, Latkes and Laughs: Rockville JCC's event runs from 1 to 3 p.m. on Sunday
- Chanukah Magic and Miracles: a Community Chanukah Celebration: The DC JCC bills this as "Mad Science lights up the 16th Street J's Community Chanukah celebration."
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