What Do Jews Do on Christmas?
 Christmas is not a Jewish holiday. Many Christians think of
Christmas as an American holiday, a secular holiday or a cultural holiday,
but most Jews do not think of Christmas that way. According to the 1990 National
Jewish Population Survey, 82% of Jewish households never have
a Christmas tree. I strongly suspect that this statistic isn't entirely accurate,
because I know that many Jews with small children have Christmas trees to
keep their children from feeling deprived or left out of the
aggressively-marketed Christmas season. However, at the very least, the statistic
shows that 82% of Jewish families are unwilling to admit to a surveyor that
they ever had one.
Most Jews (even many highly assimilated Jews) are uncomfortable about Christmas.
We don't object to Christians celebrating Christmas, but we don't particularly
want to celebrate it ourselves, and there is enormous social pressure to
celebrate Christmas, whether we want to or not. As one Jewish writer said,
"just try telling a Christmas enthusiast that the creche in front of your
post office makes you un-easy; suddenly, 'frosty' describes more than just
the snowman." Many secular Christians have told me that Christmas is my holiday
too, and some of them get very angry or even nasty when I tell them that
I don't want to celebrate it, calling me "Grinch" or "Scrooge." I have no
doubt that before this Christmas season is over, I will receive a few emails
telling me that I should celebrate Christmas; I get them every year.
So if Jews don't celebrate Christmas, then what do we do on December 25?
It's tough to find something to do on Christmas, because just about everything
is closed. Here are a few of the more popular December 25 activities for
Jews.
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Go out for Chinese food
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Many Jews go out for Chinese food on Christmas. The Chinese do not celebrate
Christmas any more than we do, so most Chinese restaurants are open on Christmas.
In Philadelphia and New York, there are several
kosher-certified Chinese restaurants to choose
from, so that even the most observant Jew can eat Chinese on Christmas. This
popular option was somewhat limited on December 25, 2001, because Christmas
fell on the Fast of Tevet! Fortunately, this will
not happen again until 2020!
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Go to the Matzah Ball
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In some cities, Jewish singles organizations sponsor
"Matzah Balls," Jewish singles dances,
on Christmas Eve or Christmas night.
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Go to a movie
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Many movie theaters are open on Christmas day, particularly in the afternoon
(after 4PM). In fact, in 1998, a friend and I went to see The Prince of Egypt
in a local theater on the afternoon of Christmas day.
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Get together with family
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It's often tough to get the whole family together for dinner, especially
when the children are grown up or not living in the immediate area. Christmas
is a time when everybody is sure to have the day off. Some families do this
do it with a vague sense of guilt at celebrating Christmas, and often repeatedly
remind each other that "we're not celebrating Christmas, it's just a convenient
time to have a family get-together."
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Go to work
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Jewish people often volunteer to work on Christmas, especially if they work
in 24/7 community service jobs like hospitals, newspapers, or police departments.
This allows their Christian co-workers to get the day off, and gives the
Jewish worker an extra day off at some other time of the year, when everything
isn't closed. Even if your business isn't 24/7, you can often talk your boss
into letting you work Christmas in order to get another day off some other
time.
Some of my readers have told me about the following Christmas activities
by Jews in their communities:
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A community in Mexico City organized a group of Jews to cover for Christians
who would otherwise have to work on Christmas. This was called "Project
Brotherhood."
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Jews in the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia areas go to Atlantic City,
where the casinos never close, and the hotels are very inexpensive. The casinos
are practically empty on Christmas, except for Jews, Indians and Asians.
© Copyright 5760-5767 (1999-2007), Tracey
R Rich
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