Everything Jewish people love about Christmas

As the holiday season peaks, Christmas decorations cover the streets and shops nearly everywhere. Every other sentence is either “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas.” The Hanukkah decorations and spirit is rare, unless you live in a Jewish community, and signs of Kwanza are even more rare.

As a Jew, the Christmas spirit doesn’t bother me. Quite the opposite, Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Here are some reasons why Jews love Christmas:

The holiday spirit is contagious

There’s hardly any other time of the year when people smile so much. The smile that free cookies have the potential to cause has no equal. It’s impossible to be sad surrounded by singing, dancing and laughter. No matter your religion, it’s hard not to smile watching videos of little kids getting presents.

The lights add to our fun

Hanukkah is the festival of lights, so the Christmas lights just look like an exaggeration of our celebration. The houses, the lampposts, and the trees are all great places to brighten up the world. Especially during a time of year when it gets dark so early, they give everything a little more life and beauty.

Everything is on sale

Once Christmas is over, everything everywhere gets real cheap, real fast. Christians have to spend money before Christmas, when everything is expensive, but the Jews don’t have to buy Christmas presents, so we can wait until the after-Christmas sales. And who doesn’t like a good bargain? Especially cheaper chocolate in fun shapes.

We have time off

You may not get time off school explicitly for Hanukkah, but we get time off for Christmas. Even though it was just Thanksgiving, we get another break for something we don’t even celebrate. Without Christmas, we wouldn’t get vacation. It gives us a chance to cross things off our bucket list – skiing in the Alps, relaxing on the beach, and what better Hanukkah present is there than the freedom to do nothing?

Peppermint is in everything

This is true of other holidays as well, but it’s still wonderful during Christmas. Peppermint coffee, peppermint lipgloss, peppermint peppermints, everything is peppermint. It’s really just an excuse to eat more sugar, but who cares? We like sugar as much as the next religion. We even make peppermint flavored gelt sometimes.

Santa’s too familiar

Let’s be real here. He’s a big guy who doesn’t shave, takes other people’s food, and doesn’t work on Hanukkah. He’s just like us (or some of us). In his long cloak and hat, he bears more resemblance to ultra-Orthodox Jews than anyone else.

We get to try new traditions

We’re known for our traditions. We even turned it into a song in a famous musical/movie. We’re always adding new traditions, and Christmas is full of them. Chinese food and a movie on Christmas Eve, Hanukkah sweaters on Hanukkah and mystery maccabee (secret Santa) all give us life.

Adam Sandler’s ‘Hanukkah Song’ is our jam

All the Christmas music gave us a reason for us (Adam Sandler representing us) to write one hilarious Hanukkah song. Eventually, we might build up a kick-ass Hanukkah playlist.

The songs were all written by Jews

Ok, maybe not all of them, but surely a lot. Hearing our people’s songs every second of every day gives us a sense of pride. Some of the best are “Winter Wonderland,” by Felix Bernard, “Let it Snow,” by Sammy Cahn and Julie Styne, and “White Christmas,” by Irving Berlin. And let’s be real, we love anything by Irving Berlin.

We get the world to ourselves for a day

Okay, maybe not completely to ourselves, since there are many people who aren’t Jewish and who don’t celebrate Christmas, but it’s still less than normal. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, most people are celebrating with their family, giving the rest of us a day to ourselves. If you’re a skier, you know the beauty of getting the ski mountain to yourself for a day.

You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout because Christmas isn’t just for Christmas any longer. It’s time to spread some global joy.