Getting ready for the holidays...

In our family we celebrate all of the Jewish as well as the Catholic holidays, which is very fun, I must say! But preparation for each is so very different that it never fails to have an enormous impact on me.

While Christmas shopping is something that I never find too fun, it is necessary, and I do love giving gifts. I find myself buying way too much for each person, and never enough for my husband - after all, how many ways can you say I love you with gifts for a man who doesn’t ask for anything? The snow blower this year is his big gift..Isn’t that intimate? Well, I threw in a wonderful necklace from me and engraved, as well as the ever present baseball cards. No matter what I get him, he’ll hug me and smile and love it. That’s what’s wonderful about gifts and him….wish kids were as easy!

Chanukah brings out the familial side in me, as it is what I was brought up celebrating. We didn’t celebrate in an grand style, the way Christmas is done. We celebrated with small gifts and not much cheer. Oh, we’d light the menorah, and say the prayer, but it wasn’t a time of laughter and carrying on, at least not that I remember. And now, Chanukah is, as I impress upon my children, for smaller presents, but more about being together and thanking God for what we have.  Strange thing for a child to comprehend when their eight days of presents include one big gift, usually from Grandma, and then a few little pieces of candy and tinker toys from their parents. But somehow, they adjust.

Chanukah brings no decorations or Chanukah music, although I do try to cook a nice meal.

Christmas brings wreaths, and red and green lights, Christmas trees and candles..It evokes the side of me that hates commercialization and the  “must give” attitude. I wish I had taught my children to give on Christmas and not to receive, but I didn’t…Aaah yes, the failure as a parent once again…

What do the holidays evoke in you?