MidLifeBloggers Writers Workshop: ‘Tis the season

Thirty days hath November–and this is the last of them for 2011.  Which means that tomorrow is December 1.  No need for fancy algorithms telling how many days are left to Christmas; this month is its own in-your-face countdown.  And Chanukah (or Hanukah, if you prefer)? For that I always need an algorithm–Google’s, in fact. This year Christians and Jews are blessed by having Christmas come right smack in the middle of Chanukah (12/20-28).  That means that Jewish families, especially those with small children, are once again having to deal with the Great Holiday Quandry: what do we celebrate? why don’t we celebrate? how do we celebrate? why can’t we have a tree, and what am I getting?

And that only covers the Judeo-Christians among us.  What about the Buddhists, the Muslims, the Taoists, the Atheists?

So–the prompt for this week’s Writers Workshop is:  How does/did your family celebrate the holidays of December?  Are you continuing a tradition?  Changing one up?  Starting a new one? How? and why? and is it working?

As usual, I’ll post my response to the prompt tomorrow.  Send me yours at jane(at)midlifebloggers(dot)com and I will publish the link on MidLifeBloggers.

 

Photo credit: caemployersresources.com

Tagged as: Chanukah, christmas, family, holiday celebrations, holiday traditions, Kwanza, Writers Workshop, writing, writing prompt

  • Shani Ferguson

    As the child of an interfaith family, I enjoyed celebrating both Chanukah and Christmas. In terms of religion, I identified far more with Chanukah, but I also loved the peace/goodwill feeling of Christmas. And the carols – oh, the carols!

    But now that I am raising children, I am conflicted. On one hand, I’d like my sons to have the same appreciation I had for Christmas observances. And, importantly, I don’t want them to feel entirely left out of the huge cultural presence Christmas has. But we are raising them Jewish (though not at all Conservative), so it is important to me to emphasize that.

    With the crazy, O’Reilly-esque “war on Christmas” nonsense of recent years, I feel quite isolated and excluded, perhaps even resentful. Being inclusive does not equate to discrimination. Things like those (along with the misogyny of the Haredim and extreme Orthodox Jews) make me want to reject religion altogether. Maybe I’ll stick with the pagan aspects of Christmas.

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