Christmas Entertainment for the Family

Christmas can be a wonderful time of year when you don't have to worry about all of the shopping craziness, stupid TV commercials, and just all of the commercialism. It is a time when we can spend time with our families and friends and have a good time. I will admit that Christmas time is my favorite time of year because of this reason.

Family and friends are very important to me. If I could, I would not only spend every Christmas with the people in my immediate family unit, but also those outside of my immediate family. I have lived in Nevada for the last twelve years and have not had many chances to spend Christmas with aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, and cousins. Unfortunately, all of them live on the East coast. Still, I do remember how we entertained my family and friends when I lived in Trenton, New Jersey. My mother, father, sister, and I lived in a house at that time (in 1994-1996) and every Christmas we had many of our family members come over. My aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, and cousins all came over. I believe we had upwards of twenty people in our home.

We had a great time entertaining our family. We prepared a huge Christmas dinner and everyone ate at a large table in the living room overlooking the Christmas tree. The food was unbelievable. We prepared a delicious ham with pineapple glaze (a very large one at that), sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes (homemade of course), beans, and for dessert we had apple pie and pumpkin pie. What was even more fun was that the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah sometimes fell on or right near Christmas. When this happened, we had the Menorah going the same time as the Christmas tree. When Hanukkah fell on Christmas, we would even prepare some dishes for that Holiday as well. Matzo ball soup and beef brisket were the biggest hits. I will say that we had a lot of leftovers after we had all finished.

When Hanukkah did fall on Christmas, this allowed my sister and me to entertain our family and friends by showing them how we learned to read the Hebrew language. In addition to singing Christmas songs, we sung Hanukkah songs such as Dreidel, Dreidel; Oh Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah; and Rock of Ages. Since I was 8 at the time and my sister was 4, this was a pretty big feat for us. I had a lot of fun singing for my family and friends. In addition to the singing of Hanukkah songs, my cousins, friends, and I sung some of the Christmas songs for all of the adults. This was a time when I was not embarrassed or scared to perform in front of people. Also, that was a time when I was able to sing!

After dinner was over, everyone exchanged gifts. While some people like to open a present or two on Christmas Eve, we did not do that. At the time, I wish I could have opened all of my presents.

Now that I live 2500 miles away from my family members, I usually only celebrate the holiday with my immediate family. Even after all of these years, we still prepare our pineapple glazed ham and all of the sides. We always purchase our ham about two weeks in advance. Of course, we also buy a brisket for our Hanukkah dish. Since not many stores in our area sell the brisket we need, we are always sure to look in the circulars and get to the store before all of them are taken. In addition to the Christmas and Hanukkah meals, we bake Rugelach cookies. Sometimes, we'll bake as many as 12 dozen of them!

When Christmas and Hanukkah occur together, we still sing Christmas and Hanukkah songs (since I can't sing, other members of my family do most of the singing). Also, we watch the old fashioned Christmas movies including A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life. This has become our tradition over the last decade or so.