I hate to admit it but I am enamored with the lighting displays and other going ons of the Christmas holiday. I always remember how in my neighborhood when Christmas rolled around, Broadway became a selling station for trees, the smells and the sights of real live pine trees on the Manhattan streets, regardless of the fact that they were uprooted from the ground somewhere upstate, was always Joyous.
I always loved when folks in the type of homes that have black shutters on white siding would place a candle or small lamp in each window, and have these colorful displays on their lawns. Love those big Santa globes filled with fake snow and the scenes of nativity on every lawn in the goyishe neighborhoods.
We never ate Chinese food or went to the movies on Christmas, in fact it was just like any other day, besides for the fact that banks and post offices were closed. Yeh we had off of English classes and got to go home early, but besides for that I never could tell the difference. I still think that Home Alone is exactly what happens on Christmas. I feel that it’s a bunch of rich suburban white folks siting around the tree drinking hot cocoa, egg nog and eating ginger bread cookies while watching miracle on 34th street.
My yeshiva was located in a pretty trendy area and every year around Christmas time, the city would decorate the lights and street signs with wreaths and other goodies. Then they would have a night in which they would close off the street and have horse drawn wagon rides and caroling, all the stores would offer free food and it was a grand ole time. One year a whole bunch of yeshiva guys decided to get in on the action and join the celebrations. No harm in some pictures with Santa, caroling on the street corner and tasting some free hot chocolate. The weekly mussar shmuz was a lot of fun that week.
I never even knew about the whole Jews eating Chinese food and going to the movies on Christmas until I left high school. It seems that once you enter the secular world you find out what the non-yeshiva do, kind of like when you discover that there are orthodox Jews that have a thanksgiving meal and celebrate Yom Haatzmaut- things you never knew while in yeshiva.
Do any of you do the whole Chinese food and movie thing on Christmas?
12 responses so far ↓
1 anih= // Jan 11, 2008 at 2:11 am
typical “havanagila judaism” rubbish…
2 Hesh // Jan 11, 2008 at 3:35 am
I thought you were going to show this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9bg8xO7ndg from SNL. (Kol Isha)
3 Anonymous // Jan 11, 2008 at 5:16 pm
my fam always ordered something out, whether chinese or pizza. There’s just not much to fo on christman
4 Left Brooklyn and never looked back // Jan 11, 2008 at 6:07 pm
You bet. Isn’t it our heritage? And I do hope you watch Life of Brian!
5 Jacob is the New Ice Horse // Jan 11, 2008 at 7:19 pm
The video sucks
6 Jimmy // Jan 11, 2008 at 11:08 pm
We never eat chinese food on xmas. Most of the time it’s just a legal holiday and my dad gets the day off and we all stay home to avoid the rush. One time we went to a movie and it was empty in the theatre.
7 Jack // Jan 16, 2008 at 1:11 am
Good Chinese food is worth a lot.
8 FS // Jan 24, 2008 at 6:09 am
I know the video sucks, over 1 million views for some reason
9 Camilla Z // Feb 26, 2008 at 9:47 am
LOL Jimmy. The theater near me when I was growing up would not play regular movies on Christmas, they would play Christmas movies that day, so NO to that.
10 Camilla Z // Feb 26, 2008 at 9:51 am
The best Kosher Chinese food in Baltimore is David Chu’s
11 Hesh // Feb 26, 2008 at 11:15 am
Hey I have eaten at David Chu’s it was rocking.
12 ConservativeSci Fi // Feb 27, 2008 at 6:30 am
We almost always eat chinese food (Royal Dragon in Rockville, Kosher, but not quite as good as David Chu’s though my son likes it better) on Xmas and this year we actually went to the movies.
If you went into the traif chinese places, I think you would probably be able to see most reform and many conservative jews, with a few actual chinese americans mixed in to the most authentic restaurants.
As a side point, the “community” jewish Day school closed earlier than the local public schools for xmas break, which was annoying (I have kids in both).
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