Once again, happy Monday. Mondays are what you make them. I look forward to all Mondays, as they’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you!
HOW POP CULTURE AND COMMERCIALISM HAVE IMPACTED THE WAYS WE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS AND HANUKKAH…
The clock is winding down. There’s only 9 shopping days left until Christmas Day. This year, that will also be the first day of Hanukkah (the Jewish festival of lights), which changes dates from year to year. It can start as early as November 28th and as late as December 27th.
According to Zachary Crocket’s article (Dec. 20, 2016), at Vox.com, since the start of the 20th century, Hanukkah has begun on Christmas Day four other times – in 2005, 1959, 1921, and 1910. Hanukkah has also started on Christmas Eve four times (since 1900) – in 2016, 1978, 1940, and 1902.
I learned on Wikipedia.org that there’s a pop culture term for celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah together, whenever they overlap. It’s called Chrismukkah and its origin supposedly began after WWII, as initiated by middle-class Jews in Germany and Austria.
However, like Festivus, the oddity became particularly popular in the U.S., predominantly with interfaith households. And also like Festivus, it was further commercialized in the U.S. by a popular TV show called The O.C. (December 2003). Festivus became a pop culture phenomenon after being highlighted in an episode of Seinfeld (December 1997).
Since Chrismukkah’s pop-culture influence emerged, some Jewish families have begun celebrating with a “Hanukkah Bush” (similar to a Christmas tree) decorated in lights and Jewish themed ornaments. However, these are generally discouraged by most traditional rabbis. Additionally, “Elf-On-A-Shelf” was remarketed into “Mench-On-A-Bench”.
The old tradition of gift-giving for the “Twelve Days Of Christmas” starts on Christmas Day and runs through January 6th (the Epiphany). Historically, each day was marked with a feast to honor Christian saints and others.
Hanukkah is an 8-day celebration, during which some of its traditions include lighting a candle on a menorah every night and playing a game called dreidel, with a 4-sided top and “pot of gold coins”, called gelt; which are just chocolate discs, wrapped in gold foil to resemble money. I remember getting these delicious “coins” when I was young.
Gloria Pitzer’s Secret Recipes Newsletter (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Nov.-Dec. 1990, Issue #147; p. 1)
THE GIFT OF LOVE
CHRISTMAS IS TOO COMMERCIAL? It’s the biggest cop-out for those who put a price tag on the pleasures of the holiday and insist that the success of the celebration depends on the amount of money spent on the preparations and gifts.
If I give our children only one gift, it will be that I gave some practical sense of what is truly important at this time of year – not the gift, but the gathering of family and friends… Not the food but the feeling of just being home…
Never letting what we w-a-n-t be more important than what we need… Not complaining about trivials. And always appreciating what we’ve already received before we can expect to receive more.
The coming together of the seasonal celebrations, in which we give thanks and then rejoice in the reflected light of that single star [over] 2,000 years ago that still shines in the hearts of those who will “go and do likewise”. Happy holidays!
Mom came from a blended faith family. Even though her mom left the Jewish faith when she married my grandpa and joined his church, the church of Christian Science, her heritage stuck with her in many ways.
And she continued a close relationship with all of her many siblings, who retained their Jewish faith. Thus, we always celebrated the holidays with both families, the Carter’s and the Klein’s, blending together many of the Christmas and Hanukkah traditions.
There was a natural acceptance and embrace of each other’s beliefs and traditions. We are different, yet so much alike, too. Mom taught me, as her mom taught her, that the words, “Noel” and “Shalom”, both mean peace.
More than at any other time of year, this is the season of love, hope, and understanding. Mom often reminded me, “it’s not a commentary on those who believe in the meaning of the holiday but rather one on those who don’t.” She said her grandma said, “If they knew better, they’d do better.” She also wrote in her newsletter (Nov.-Dec. 1990):
“I wonder if we’re really any better off, any more knowledgeable, any healthier or wealthier because we’re saturated with the ‘real life’ dramas of movies and TV, depicting hopelessness instead of hopefulness! Grief instead of motivation or inspiration.”
Gloria Pitzer’s Secret Recipes Newsletter (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Nov.-Dec. 1987, Issue #129; p. 1)
THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS
THE COMMERCIALISM OF Christmas has grown out of our social hunger to see fairy tales come true, to remove us even momentarily from the wounds of the real world. If there was no commercialism in Christmas, only the truly devoted, the sincerely righteous, would celebrate it…
Quietly and in prayerful meditation or restful seclusion from the world. As soon as society put a price tag on Christmas, EVERYBODY could observe it – and in a manner and a way in which individualism shines, as did the star that led the wisemen to the Bethlehem baby.
Perhaps the shining enthusiasm of our celebration customs leads each of us… If only for a moment at midnight, on December 24th, to relive the simple wonder of how one man’s life and teachings have endured 2,000 years of other failing philosophies and edicts.
If we set our course, select our direction, and follow our “own” plans for observing the season of Christmas, it becomes, indeed, the season of hope and we cannot then blame any resulting disappointments on the holiday itself.
Nor can we blame it on the initial experience from which the holiday emerged and evolved… The fanciful glittering of the glossy magazine pages on how to set your table, decorate your doorway, or wrap your packages is not litigation but ‘possibility’.
We must work within the realm of our own individual possibilities in our celebration. Christmas is an easy scapegoat for the blame that people are too afraid to accept for their own weaknesses. Christmas is not too commercialized unless man has individually and collectively made it so.
Thursday is National Hard Candy Day. Dolly Parton’s song “Hard Candy Christmas” basically promotes the pop cultural dislike of hard candy. A hard candy Christmas makes me think of a Christmas candy house (aka: gingerbread house).
Incidentally, National Gingerbread House Day was just celebrated last Thursday. Personally, I’ve always loved hard candy, especially at Christmas time. It happily reminds me of my grandma (Mom’s mom), for she always had butterscotch candy or Life Savers (and gum) in her purse, which she always shared on our visits.
Additionally, when I was a kid, Mom always made a candy house for us at Christmas time. I’ll be sharing her “Candy House” instructions, today, on the Crafts tab. And see the end of this post for one of Mom’s recipes for making your own hard candy.
Mom’s candy house didn’t include the traditional gingerbread walls and roof. Instead, she made a special white frosting that she divided, coloring some green. She spread the white in sections, as it dried quickly, over a cardboard house form she made.
She decorated this with a lot of different candy, as she went along – Necco Wafers for the shingles and assorted hard candies for the windows, shutters, and doors. She used the green frosting, as well as small lollipops, sugared gumdrops, and inverted sugar cones for the bushes, snowman, and trees, in the “yard” around the house.
AGAIN, MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Secret Recipes Newsletter (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Nov.-Dec. 1990, Issue #147; p. 8)
THE CHRISTMAS FEELING
A THOUSAND YEARS FROM now, friends, we will be greeting each other, at this time of the year, with these two simple words – ‘Merry Christmas’. Perhaps that is because the real spirit of Christmas embraces each one of us with a quality that is above and beyond disasters that shake the human condition.
It is above international situations that claim to threaten peace between nations. It’s basically a simple hope for peace and goodwill, no matter what other trappings we’ve attached to the occasion, through the years, since that single star lit up the sky over Bethlehem.
No matter what other customs and traditions mankind has attached to Christmas or the celebration of it, the humble wish for ‘peace on earth, goodwill toward men’ remains strong among those who thrive on hope and cherish what is good; refusing to be deprived of such expectations!
Merry Christmas, happy New Year, and to our Jewish friends and family, happy Hanukkah. To our atheist friends – good luck!
I recently received the following message in my email that I want to share with you, as it reminded me of Mom:
If you hand me a card, a batch of cookies, or even a candy cane, and start with, “It’s not much…” – let me stop you right there. Out of everyone in your busy, hectic life, you paused to think about me. You didn’t have to, but you did. That effort? That time? That thought? That’s everything.
This season, let’s stop saying, “It’s not much…”. Thoughtfulness is always “much” and the smallest gestures always mean the most. So thank you for thinking of me – it’s more than enough because it’s the thought that counts, not the thing.
Thanks for visiting! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my memories of my mom, her memories, and other related things. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at [email protected]. You can also find me on Facebook: @TheRecipeDetective.
IN CLOSING…
In honor of Thursday, being National Hard Candy Day, here’s Mom’s secret recipe for imitating “Life Slivers (The Candy Without The Hole)”; as seen in her self-published cookbook, Eating Out at Home (National Home News, St. Clair, MI; September 1978, p. 19).
[NOTE: As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.]
Additionally, below is a picture of the “Candy Testing” chart and thermometer tip that Mom shared in her self-published cookbook, Top Secret Recipes Al’a Carte (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Sept. 1979, p. 11). Again, asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.
Incidentally, the Thursday after next is National Candy Cane Day. So I’ll be sharing Mom’s recipe for making those, at home, next week.
P.S. Food-for-thought until next Monday…
December observes… National Pear Month, National Write A Business Plan Month, Operation Santa Paws (which runs the 1st-24th), Root Vegetables and Exotic Fruits Month, Safe Toys and Gifts Month, Worldwide Food Service Safety Month, National Human Rights Month, and Universal Human Rights Month – among other things.
Today is also… National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day. Plus, it’s the start of… Las Posadas (Spanish for “The Inns”; a 9-day celebration of Mary’s 9-month pregnancy & her and Joseph’s journey from Bethlehem to Nazareth; always celebrated Dec. 16th-24th).
Tomorrow is… National Maple Syrup Day.
Wednesday, December 18th, is… National Roast Suckling Pig Day.
December 19th is… National Oatmeal Muffin Day. Plus, as the Thursday before Christmas [for 2024], it’s also… National Re-Gifting Day.
December 20th is… National Sangria Day. Plus, as the third Friday in December [for 2024], it’s also… National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day.
December 21st is… National Humbug Day, National Maine Day, National French Fried Shrimp Day, Winter Solstice (which is usually on the 21st but changes occasionally, always between December 20th and 23rd) and Yule (which is always on the day of the Winter Solstice). Plus, as the third Saturday in December [for 2024], it’s also… National Wreaths Across America Day.
Sunday, December 22nd, is… National Date Nut Bread Day.
Have a great week.
…51 down and only 1 more to go.
