A Jewish Christmas

As I sometimes say, I’m Jewish, emphasis on the ish. That is to say that my family and I casually follow some Jewish traditions but are far from very religious. We celebrate most of the major holidays, attend the occasional temple service, I help teach Hebrew school almost every Sunday and had my Bar Mitzvah last summer. But that is the extent of our “Jewishness.” The title of this piece is: “A Jewish Christmas” (this should be obvious because it literally says that a couple inches above this). I know when most non-Jews hear a phrase like that they are quick to think of the Jewish holiday of Chanukkah. This is probably the most famous Jewish holiday most likely because it sort of aligns with Christmas. Side note: people also seem to think that Chanukkah is a very important holiday despite the fact that it isn’t one of the more important Jewish holidays and isn’t in the Torah. Back to the point now, when I say Jewish Christmas I’m not talking about any Jewish holiday (Though Chanukkah is one of the most fun times of the year). I’m talking about how my family celebrities, no, recognizes Christmas by using our own traditions. That tradition is our annual Christmas trip.

Requirements of the Kraemer Christmas trip written out like an ingredients list:

1. Travel to an interesting city on or around Christmas
2. Stay in a hotel with a pool 
3. Find and eat good takeout Chinese food (mostly because that’s the only thing that’s open)
4. Have an authentic hotel breakfast 
5. Watch at least two movies
6. Play as many board and card games as possible
7. Eat Ben and Jerry’s and other favorite sweets
8. See some sort of light show
9. Ride some form of transportation that isn’t a car
10. (For me and my dad only) Bring a guitar
11. (Optional) Get some sort of illness (I put this in optional but somehow this always seems to happen.) 
12.   (Optional) Come home to a power outage (I can remember this happening two or three times but there could be more. Ask my parents.)  
13. HAVE FUN WITH FAMILY

Sounds pretty fun? It’s something that we all look forward to. 

In the words of my sister, “I’m proud to be Jewishing (made up verb).” I’m also very proud to be Jewish. This is why this trip isn’t meant to replace our other Jewish celebrations. Nor is it meant to be a Christmas celebration. It’s just my family doing something that we all should do: eating Ben and Jerry’s (You didn’t think that was going to be there, did you.) But really what we’re doing is having fun with family, keeping a family tradition alive, and, most importantly, taking something that isn’t in our personalities and adapting it so it fits. But really… everyone should eat more Ben and Jerry’s.