<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  I love Christmas.\u00A0 I find all the snowmen and Santa decorations endearing, and I don&amp;#039;t even mind the chaos of consumerism. Each year, I send out dozens of Christmas cards and embrace the opportunity to buy gifts for friends and family. I start watching\u00A0Home Alone\u00A0and\u00A0Elf\u00A0as early as October, and I know all the words to *NSYNC&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Home for the Holidays&amp;quot; album. So what&amp;#039;s the big deal? Plenty of people love Christmas, right? Well, I&amp;#039;m Jewish. I grew up in an interfaith family with a Jewish mother and a Protestant father who agreed to raise me in my mom&amp;#039;s faith. Still, in an homage to my dad&amp;#039;s traditions, we celebrated Christmas each December, albeit in the most benign, non-religious ways possible. We put up a tree, but we didn&amp;#039;t go to church; I sat on the mall Santa&amp;#039;s lap, but we never spoke of scripture. I recognize now, though, that even our secular Christmas celebrations made my mother deeply uncomfortable. Having grown up in a home with two Jewish parents, with a nary an ornament or a wreath in sight during the month of December, Christmas felt foreign and unfamiliar to her. It was\u00A0someone else&amp;#039;s holiday. When my father died, Christmas disappeared with him. My mom and I celebrated it together\u00A0only once after his passing, during my freshman year of high school, when we wanted our Catholic foreign exchange student from Peru to experience a real American Christmas. Much to my dismay, our pathetic struggle to tie a wobbly live tree to our window pane with fishing wire confirmed that perhaps this was not a holiday two Jewish girls were meant to celebrate without assistance. And so I tried to forget about my love of Christmas. The older I got, the more connected I became to my Jewish identity, and the more I had\u00A0to\u00A0convince myself that I didn&amp;#039;t need Christmas\u2013that it was, indeed, someone else&amp;#039;s holiday. But, I am also someone who loves holidays, from July 4th fireworks to Halloween costumes. It makes sense, then, that in my early twenties, I finally admitted to myself: I missed Christmas. A\u00A0lot. I was desperately nostalgic for the long-lost holiday of my youth, making Rice Krispie\u00A0treats for Santa and exchanging gifts in our pajamas. Most of all, I missed having a Christmas tree\u2013a\u00A0tangible sign of the holiday\u2013in my home. Like my mother, most of my Jewish friends can&amp;#039;t understand my love of a holiday that doesn&amp;#039;t belong to us. They have two Jewish parents and spent summers\u00A0at Jewish sleepaway camps, some even growing up so observantly religious that their parents forbade them from trick-or-treating on Halloween. To them, the idea of a committed Jew celebrating Christmas is nothing short of appalling. My love of Christmas, then, is a forbidden anomaly, one that I long felt deeply guilty about. I wanted a return to the lighthearted, festive holidays of my childhood, but I wasn&amp;#039;t supposed to love a holiday that wasn&amp;#039;t mine. Still, I wondered: long past living at home with my mother, must I feel obligated to continue my Christmas-free existence, looking longingly at the celebrations and decorations of my gentile friends? Could I start celebrating it again, even as a full-blown Jewish adult? Finally, it occurred to me: I was no less Jewish for wearing green on St. Patrick&amp;#039;s Day or sending valentines on February 14th. And neither was I a traitor to my faith simply because I longed for Christmas decor. I decided to celebrate Christmas again. It helps that I&amp;#039;ve since fallen in love with a man who isn&amp;#039;t Jewish. Though he&amp;#039;s a lapsed Catholic, he still cherishes the traditions of his own childhood\u2013namely Christmas, which means a guilt-free return to the holiday I&amp;#039;ve long loved. The day after Thanksgiving, we set up a six-foot fake tree\u00A0decorated with gold and white ornaments and a tiny, silver pendant engraved with the words &amp;quot;A HOUSE UNITED.&amp;quot; The &amp;quot;U&amp;quot; is a Hanukkah menorah, the &amp;quot;I&amp;quot; a Christmas tree; it perfectly captures the meld of traditions we&amp;#039;re creating together.  This December, we&amp;#039;ll celebrate his first Hanukkah, complete with eating latkes and lighting my favorite menorah. And then, on Christmas, we&amp;#039;ll wake up early to unwrap the gifts beneath our tree. As in my childhood, there will be no church and no talk of religion\u2013just a happy interfaith couple, enjoying a cozy morning around a beautifully lit tree. I know that others, Jews and Christians alike, may disagree with my decision, but it doesn&amp;#039;t matter.\u00A0I&amp;#039;m never giving up Christmas again. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/real-women/a52926/im-jewish-and-love-christmas/>