Watch some of these UTube a capella versions of holiday songs that are both melodic and interesting as voices only sing the melodies, harmonize and provide rhythm.
Joy to the World by Pentatonix.
Hanukkah Song Selection by Shir Soul
Typically, Christmas is represented by the colors red and green, and Hanukkah by blue and white, while silver and gold are the colors that celebrate the festive holiday season. Consider how your family’s home can incorporate all these colors – a fragrant evergreen wreath or tree, holly berries, a blue and white tablecloth, lights of all four colors, a shiny menorah – are just some of the ways that your home can showcase both Christmas and Hanukkah colors. You may also want to purchase or make some Christmas or Hanukkah table decorations that you use each year at the holiday’s family meals and invite children to draw pictures that use all the colors of the season.
Choose a location in your home that creates a meaningful background for you. Decide whether your family is going to wear the same type of clothing, such as pajamas or dressy clothes, or not, and plan to take the photo in the same location with the family members standing or sitting in the same places every holiday. You may also want to designate a particular wall in your home where you showcase each year’s framed photo. Watch how each family member grows and changes over the years. These photos are likely to become family treasures.
For families that celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah, Parents magazine has some suggestions for melding the holidays through food:
This idea for a fun game comes from Deborah Skolnik, who was senior editor at Parenting and is currently editorial director of NYMetroParents.
When I married my husband, I was introduced to my new favorite game, Hide the Pickle. That sounds wrong.
Let me explain: My in-laws hang a pickle ornament on their Christmas tree each year, and whoever finds it gets a lovely coin.
The thinking is that a tiny green pickle in a big green tree is tough to spot. And it is—for amateurs. But I’m Jewish: I’ve spent my entire life staring at pickles. (I’m pretty sure I had a pickle crib mobile.) For a while, I was killing it. As the others squinted and scrutinized, I’d give the tree a quick once-over and locate the camouflaged Kirby—stat. Year after year, I’d get the coin, while my brothers- and sisters-in-law would politely hide their sour (or half-sour) feelings at my winning streak. Eventually I bowed out, feeling the fight wasn’t fair.
Now that we all have kids, we’re the spectators. It’s my daughters’ turn to try to out-pickle their cousins, and they usually don’t. Our family today is an even greater mix of beliefs and backgrounds, so in a sweet way, Hide the Pickle is a tribute to our nation’s great melting pot. Just fill mine with matzo ball soup.
Just as Sophie and Tommy celebrate Christmas in different ways, so do all families. Over the next few months I will be posting ideas for family observances and celebrations. Today’s suggestion comes from the Parent Map website. Please share your family traditions too.
“One of our favorite holiday traditions is actually one that we saw being practiced in a friend’s home while we were visiting for the holidays. Each Christmas our friend’s mother writes down the big family moments that have happened throughout the year and reads them aloud after the family has finished opening their gifts. Now as adults, our friend and his siblings can go back and read these annual thoughtful journal entries and reminisce over all of the great family moments that they may not have remembered right away. And since the journal begins from the time that they were infants, they have plenty of treasured moments to recall each year!”
Two of my preferred sources for blank journals are Paper Source and, for a choice of journals from all over the world, Novica.
Thanks to Rachel Kamin for recommending Eight Candles and a Tree on this radio program. (Start at 11:30 for the interfaith book recommendations.)
for recommending my book for kids who celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah. Here’s the link.
Growing up in a Jewish family in Johannesburg, South Africa, my mother always made latkes made from the International Goodwill recipe book — her “go to” book for our family’s meals. Here is the latke recipe:
3 medium-sized potatoes, small grated onion, 2 eggs, 5 Tbs flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, dash of pepper, oil for frying.
Grate the potatoes and onions. Add salt, pepper, eggs, flour and baking powder and mix. Drop by tablespoons into deep hot oil into which a piece of onion has been added. Fry to golden brown on each side. Put in oven to dry and crisp for about five minutes. Serve with applesauce.
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