Chanuka? Oh, Hannukah!

For secular Jews like me, this time of year can get confusing, and not just because we can’t figure out how to spell the name of our holiday. Here’s a fun blog post from Working Dad about one Jew’s relationship with Hannukah, including the funny-because-it’s-true observation that “Hanukkah ‘is a minor holiday with the same theme as most Jewish holidays. They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat.’”

The author of the post goes on to discuss how he tries to deal with Hannukah as a Jewish father of half-Jewish kids in a Christmas-oriented society. As someone in that exact situation, I’ve been struggling with the same thing. So far, I’ve come up blank. We’ll probably end up lighting the menorah when Pooky gets older, but I’m not sure if we’ll do much beyond that. My wife’s family, who all live in town, aren’t Christian, but they all celebrate Christmas. It would be nice if they could switch to Hannukah, since they have no religious attachment to Christmas, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen. Oh well.

Anyhoo, I would like to impart to Pooky some sense of Jewish identity, and toys like these from Bebe International might help to plant that seed. I like the wooden Chanukah set pictured above (Price: $33.95), and there are a number of other Jewish-themed toys. They also have toys and baby goodies with other religious and cultural themes.

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