Can Jews Celebrate Christmas?

Ask the Rabbi: Interfaith Family Questions

By Ariela Pelaia for About.com

Question

My husband and I have been thinking a lot about Christmas and Hanukkah this year and would like your opinion on the best way to deal with Christmas as a Jewish family living in a Christian society.

My husband comes from a Christian family and we have always gone to his parents house for Christmas celebrations. I come from a Jewish family so we have always celebrated Hanukkah at home. In the past it did not bother me that the kids were being exposed to Christmas because they were too little to understand the larger picture - it was mainly about seeing family and celebrating another holiday. Now my oldest is 5 and is beginning to ask about Santa (Does Santa bring the Hanukkah presents too? Who is Jesus?). Our youngest is 3 and isn't quite there yet, but we are wondering if it would be wise to continue celebrating Christmas.

We have always explained it as something that grandma and grandpa do and that we are happy to help them celebrate, but that we are a Jewish family. What is your opinion? How should a Jewish family deal with Christmas especially when Christmas is such a production during the holiday season? (Not so much for Hanukkah.) I don't want my kids to feel like they are missing out. More than this, Christmas has always been a huge part of my husband's holiday celebrations and I think he would feel sad if his children didn't grow up with Christmas memories.

Answer

I grew up next door to German Catholics in a mixed suburb of New York City. As a child, I helped my “adoptive” Aunt Edith and Uncle Willie decorate their tree on the afternoon of Christmas Eve and would be expected to spend the Christmas morning in their home. Their Yuletide gift to me was always the same: a one-year subscription to National Geographic. After my father remarried (I was 15), I spent Christmases with my step mom’s Methodist family a few towns over.

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