The Three Holidays in December

Most families have a holiday tradition they keep and cherish every December. For me, that holiday is Hanukkah. I can close my eyes and smell the latkes (potato pancakes) sizzling in the frying pan. When I was growing up, our family exchanged inexpensive gifts and we all were happy to get a present! Besides the aroma, seeing and playing with my cousins, who we hadn’t seen in a long time, was a treat all by itself.

Over the years, I became proficient at a traditional Hanukkah game called dreidel (spinning top). All players must add money or an item (like candy) into a kitty to begin the game. When the dreidel lands on its side, the player had to add, subtract, get what’s in the kitty, or do nothing and wait for the next turn.

After a fun game of dreidel, it would be dark outside and we would light the candles. The candelabra is called a menorah and it holds nine candles, one for each night of Hanukkah, and one called the shamash. I just finished reading a wonderful picture book called The Beam of Light: The Story of the First White House Menorah by Elisa Boxer. The menorah was made from reclaimed wood salvaged during President Truman’s time. The beam sat in storage for 70 years and was just recently repurposed in 2022. Another new book is Eight Sweet Nights:A Festival of Lights by Charlotte Offsay, a story about the joy of coming together to celebrate with family and food. Hanukkah Pajamakkahs, just like the title implies, is a story of a girl who loves her new Hanukkah pajamas so much that she decides to wear them for all eight nights, with the promise to keep them spotless. However, as the holiday progresses, Ruthie has a harder and harder time keeping them clean.

My extended family celebrates Christmas and my husband and I attend their Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities. We help them savor their delicious meals and desserts. The Christmas tree is in the corner of the room draped with ornaments and tinsel, and under the tree we place our presents next to Santa’s gifts. We sing many Christmas songs like Deck the Halls and Twelve Days of Christmas and my family’s favorite Dominick the Donkey.

The Mercer County Library System has numerous new Christmas picture books to borrow. Santa’s First Christmas by Mac Barnett is a sure winner! Santa returns home to the North Pole Christmas morning and, thanks to his loyal elves, gets to experience the magic of Christmas for the first time with a perfect tree, treats and presents. For the preschool dinosaur fans who love to laugh, A Very Dinosaur Christmas is a must read! The colorful pages illustrate the story of dinosaur chaos during the Christmas festivities! Children who adore cars will enjoy Buster and the Christmas Parade. Buster embraces the true spirit of Christmas when he refuses to leave rival race car Scruff behind, even if it means missing the start of the parade. I treasure the book called A Stickler Christmas, because I love to give presents to friends and family more than receiving them, as does the book’s main character, Stickler.

When I turned 13 years old, Kwanzaa was created. This new holiday, which grew out of the Watts Riots of 1965, was established to reaffirm and restore African heritage and culture. The seven-branch candelabra, called a kinara, represents the seven Kwanzaa principles of unity, self-determination, problem solving, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. Sesame Street’s Happy Kwanzaa explains in a simple and accurate way to Grover the meaning of these principles. Another board book called Kwanzaa explains the holiday in an easy-to-understand way.

Learning about the three holidays in December gives children the chance to honor, cherish and respect their family values, communities and different cultures. After all, it’s a celebration as well as a tradition that we perform year after year.

-Susan, Ewing Branch