No, I don't feel left out this Christmas. No, I won't feel left out next Christmas.
According to some random website I found on Google (yeah sorry, not very academic of me), there are sixteen ways to spell Hanukkah.
- The word could start with “H” or “Ch"
- Second consonant could be “nn” or “n”
- Third consonant could be “kk” or “k”
- The word could end with “ah” or “a”
This gives you the option of spelling the holiday as Hanukkah, Hanukah, Hannukah, Hanukka, Hannuka, Hannukka, Hannukkah, Hanuka, Chanukah, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Channukah, Chanukka, Channuka, Channukkah, or Channukka.
But regardless of how you spell it, you've probably gotten looks of pity if you grew up celebrating it. "You don't celebrate Christmas? Wow that must really suck..." is a statement I've been told hundreds of thousands of times. According to the Washington Times, nine out of ten Americans celebrate Christmas. Meaning, anyone who celebrates anything other than that essentially is a (insert religious affiliation here) living in a Christian society. Christmas is a big deal in this country, and there's no denying it. In fact, society finds it completely normal to begin prepping for the big day approximately two months in advance. The second Halloween has passed, the lights go up and the jingle bells begin to ring. Thanksgiving has progressively become less of a holiday due to the immediate thought of prepping for the day of red and green.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a little holiday spirit. But what I am saying is that you shouldn't expect me to be envious. I'm sure Christmas is great and all, but it doesn't make the holiday I celebrate any less great.
Furthermore, by the time this article is released, Christmas 2016 will have come and gone. Hanukkah, however, will still be going strong. In fact, the holiday will not even be halfway through. Growing up, Hanukkah was made out to be a very special holiday in my home. It was evident that my parents made it a mission to make our holiday just as exciting as the one that would fall on the 25th of December. It would have been very easy to envy the overwhelming excitement and spirit that surrounds the holiday of Christmas. During the holiday season, how often do you walk through a shopping mall and hear Hanukkah music? While walking through your local store, how many aisles of Hanukkah decorations would you find?
Exactly. Christmas was everywhere, Hanukkah- well, was in my house (and in the tiny, utterly embarassing section at CVS/Walgreens).
But for some reason, it didn't bother me. I never wished I could celebrate Christmas and I never wished I didn't celebrate Hanukkah. For me, Hanukkah was made out to be so special in my own home that I never truly felt like I was missing out. It wasn't necessarily the fact that I would be getting eight straight nights of presents (although that did help with making the other children jealous). It was the fact that there would be eight nights of latkes being eaten, dreidels being spun, gelt being devoured, and memories being made.
But unlike Christmas, Hanukkah falls differently every year. So as I light the menorah with my family these next few nights, I will be especially grateful to be able to spend the holiday with them this year and allow it to serve as a reminder why I didn't feel left out this Christmas and why I certainly will not feel left out next Christmas.
