Our Holiday Tree
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
by Iris Taub
When my children were growing up it was hard to explain to them that having a tree was not something that a Jewish family would do but then I realized that it really wasn't the tree that was the true meaning of Christmas either.
When I was growing up, my Dad wouldn't have a tree in the house but we had four large pine trees in the front of the house that he would decorate with blinking lights and even though we were Jewish, I never really celebrated Hanukkah but on Christmas morning there would be a stack of wonderful toys lined up in the living room. I remember how I would wake up in the middle of the night to sneak into the living room just to see what I would get and one year, my parents decided to line them up outside my bedroom door so when I tried to open the door, it was jammed with all kinds of wonderful gifts that I would play with until dawn and then be so tired that I would have to nap during the day. I loved Christmas and remembered with fond memories how excited I was every year until my Dad died when I was only eleven.
When I was married, I decided that when I had children that we would continue the same tradition that Daddy had but I also wanted to have a tree inside the house as well. I felt that if I was celebrating the holiday, why not go all the way. Our first Hanukkah tree was only four feet high and I placed a little elf sitting on a mushroom as the tree's topper. I affectionately called him the Hanukkah elf and told my children that Santa had a Hanukkah elf to help him deliver toys to all the Jewish kids who wanted to celebrate Christmas! I would line up toys for my children and when we finally bought a house of our own, we were the first ones in the neighborhood to decorate the outside of our house. Our neighbors laughed to see the Jewish family getting so into Christmas and when my children were old enough to attend Hebrew school, I knew that there would be a problem with continuing our little tradition. I first told them that there was no reason to share our celebration with the rest of the kids because they might not understand why were were celebrating Christmas and not Hanukkah. I finally decided to celebrate both and when Hanukkah came I would get the children a present a night and my son hated the last night of Hanukkah because he knew that all the neat toys were given and that he would wind up with either socks or some other form of clothing.
One particular year was really funny and to this day I swear that the Rabbi had past by our house and decided to make a point of his own without actually saying anything to our family.
As usual, we were the first to put the lights on our pine trees but one day we noticed the lights were gone! No one else in the neighborhood had their lights "stolen" so it seemed really strange to our family that we were the only ones who complained that their lights were missing. Naturally, I couldn't ask him directly.
Both our children are married with families of their own and our family is multi-cultural . Our son married a Baptist's minister's daughter and our daughter married someone who was raised Catholic. Neither one is raising the children either religion and so I always have my Menorah up and the oldest will read the story of Hanukkah. We still have our tradition of our little Holiday tree with Star of David garland and other little cute balls and holiday decorations. It is so festive with the blinking lights and in our front yard, instead of lights that were very difficult to put around palm trees, I have settled for colored lighted candy canes. The grandchildren love it and enjoy celebrating both holidays.
One year I even bought a live tree but found that the pine needles were all over the place and one of our male dogs tried to relieve himself on it so we decided that an artificial tree would do the trick.
My son still laughs that I have only a four foot tree and says that I should really get into the spirit and get a six foot tree instead. I told him if he wanted to get one for me and have the grandchildren decorate it, go for it! In the meantime, I am quite content with my little Holiday tree that has mini stockings with everyone's name on them, including the animals and my Star of David garland and other little treasures I have collected over the years.
I wish all my Searchwarp friends a wonderful Holiday Season and may the new year bring much happiness, good health and prosperity to all!
Iris S Taub
Parkland, Florida
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