Why I've decided to allow my Jewish children to celebrate Christmas

‘Tis the season to be conflicted, if like me you are Jewish. Every year I am faced with the same dilemma: Chanukah vs Christmas in a festive knock-out. It wasn’t always like this; Christmas was just the 25th December, another winter’s day - until my children arrived and there was no escape from jingle-bells and tinsel, TV adverts launching Christmas deals to houses adorned with flashing lights. All of a sudden, it was impossible to ignore the question: “Will Santa come to our house?”

When they were very little, there was no need to explain Chanukah, with its present for every one of its eights nights and enough doughnuts and chocolate pennies to see you through until next December. But, now they are bigger, more aware and their abundance of questions could fill a Christmas stocking, I have some decisions to make and some explaining to do.

One decision is how much of Christmas I am willing to let into their lives, as we don’t personally celebrate Christmas in the religious sense. And it’s not just a case of religion: culturally we have no turkey, no tree, no cards or presents, we don’t sing carols or drink mulled wine - although many do.

We celebrate Chanukah, the festival of light, where we light the Chanukiah and give presents, eating oily food to remember the miracle of Chanukah where one drop of oil burned for eight nights. It’s a lovely story of faith and there are many parallels with the way we celebrate to Christmas, but that’s as far as it goes. The meanings behind each festival couldn’t be further apart.

My children, however, have been seduced by the magic of Christmas – and who could blame them? There are no Chanukah movies for them to fall in love with in the way they fell head-over-heels for Buddy in the movie Elf. Elf is a brilliantly satirical and funny film that speaks to our inner child with its themes focused more on finding happiness and love than anything outwardly Christian.

So when my children begged me to take them to see Elf The Musical, I agreed - because as parents we want to enrich our children with every experience possible, and we desperately want to make their wishes come true. My kids wanted to see Buddy in real life, so that was that.

Walking into the theatre with two very excited children did placate my concerns; they were engrossed and their imaginations captured. What is so wrong, I pondered to myself, with celebrating both festivals after all? My children can see Elf, leave Santa a cookie and some carrots for his reindeers, have a Christmas tree and light our Chanukiah at the same time. Technically there aren’t any contradictions there at all.

Chanukah is a festival of hope and light that celebrates survival and the Jewish people fighting for their freedom. The birth of Christ, undeniably, is a very different thing. But I’ve come to the conclusion this year that there’s no need for my Jewish children to ignore the glitz of Christmas – the Santa fairytale, the baubles and the sparkle void of any religious undertones.

If Buddy the Elf can scoff cold spaghetti and syrup for breakfast then my children can suspend their disbelief and get lost in the world of Christmas fantasy too. Because, quite simply, Christmas has become so commercialised that there’s no reason to be a Christian to embrace it. You can quite easily come from a different religion entirely and still buy into the fantasy.

So, as a family, we will still be participating this December - even if, for me, it'll only be from the stalls.