Mom, can we pleeeease be Jewish????



Kent is obsessed with all things Hanukkah. I think he has been learning a little about all of the different holidays that people celebrate at school. He is very interested in why we aren't Jewish and was EXTREMELY disappointed to find that we do not have a menorah. One of his friends at school is Jewish and I think Kent is learning quite a lot from him.

It is pretty difficult trying to communicate the differences in Judaism and Christianity to a five year old. All the Santa business swirled in makes it all the more challenging. I don't think I remember even questioning any of this when I was little. Kent, however, has many questions:

"Mommy, why can't we just celebrate the lights? I want to celebrate the lights!"

"Everyone is supposed to have a menorah. Can't we just get one? I saw one at Target."

"Aren't we supposed to get presents every night?"

"Mommy, are you sure we aren't Jewish? Can you check?"

"The one thing I want most for Christmas is a dreidel. Can I please have a dreidel mommy?"

I have tried to tell him that people that are Jewish do not believe in Jesus the same way we do. They don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God. He seemed to accept that. I also mentioned that people who are Jewish are from a place named Israel. He understood that pretty well saying, "Oh, ok. We are from Georgia, not Israel." ;) I think part of the problem is that we don't really have any set Christmas traditions in our family. One of my friends at school said to get an Advent wreath and then tell Kent that instead of eight crazy nights we would celebrate four crazy weeks! All kidding aside, I feel that we do need to celebrate the season of Christ's birth as we head towards Christmas so it will be more meaningful for the boys. The hard part is that I usually have NOTHING ready for Christmas until we get out of school. That's right, many years I have not even started decorating until a few days before Christmas! I'm actually procrastinating with entering grades right now to write this.

So what sort of traditions do you celebrate with your family? How do you show the meaning of Christmas to your children?

Kent will be getting that dreidel after all. I was telling one of my friends who is Jewish about all of this and he went home and found a dreidel for Kent. He and his kids actually spun all of theirs to find one that was weighted the best for Kent (so sweet). He explained the meaning of all the Hebrew letters on the sides and how to play the game to me. I think I learned this a long time ago, but forgot. It really is a shame how little Christians know about Judaism! I didn't even bother to tell Kent that Jesus was Jewish. Talk about confusing! We'll just save that bit of info for next year! So Kent will get his dreidel after all. I plan on putting it in his stocking (pretty twisted, I know.)