Hanukkah will never be a replacement for Christmas -- and it shouldn't have to be. But can I justify celebrating Christmas while still calling myself a Jew?
I'll admit it: I love Christmas. That shouldn't be something to be ashamed of in 2012, but I am ashamed all the same. As a kid I loved Christmastime so much that I would plan for months before on how to decorate our modest New Jersey home, once even wrapping the two-floor box in a giant red bow like the Cartier store in New York City. I was ecstatic when people from all over town would comment on my achievement of ribbon and staples. But my elation was all too quickly squashed when fans soon became detractors: "But aren't you Jewish?" they would retort.
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