Why don't more Christians celebrate Chanukah?

[redwink]

I've been thinking about holidays and such lately - working on this year's music mix, trying to stragetize how the make the holidays as happy as possible for my family, etc. Peter, Paul & Mary's "Light One Candle" was playing when the question popped into my mind

Comments

[wendywoowho]

Because the Jews killed Jesus? It's all well and good to think that the Jewish people should be in the Promised Land, but once it extends to trying to integrate Jewish traditions into fine upstanding Christian homes, people get squeamish.

And that's all only slightly facetious.

I really think that there's a lot of anti-Semitic undercurrent in our society and religious practices. Well, more broadly, a lot of anti-Other.

[etherealizabeth]

There is definitely a lot of truth to this, although quite a few people forget that Jesus was "King of the Jews." I've had people actually say to me, "Well, He didn't mean to be. His parents were." Other people have said, "No, He was Christian!" Um, yeah...

Aside from general stupidity, though, as I mentioned to justjayj, there is also not the commercialism for Chanukkah that there is for Christmas. There are are no Chanukkah carols to buy cds of, or Chanukkah trees to be picked up or ornaments to put ont them. Last year for the very first time, I saw that Yankee Candle had put out Chanukkah scents, which I'm pretty sure is a first for any candle company. Most Jews don't do Santa Claus... There just isn't the money to be made there, so it's easy to sweep it under the rug.

[redwink]

There are are no Chanukkah carols to buy cds of

I beg to differ. I own four. Then again, that's about 2% of my holiday music collection, so you do have a point about the lack of commercial exploitation of the holiday. And technically, I'm not sure if any of the songs on the CDs could be defined as a carol. But the CDs do exist! ;)

On a side note, Solstice CDs also exist, and seemingly in greater numbers. However, you'll almost never find them at your local Wal-Mart.

[etherealizabeth]

Would you send me the names of your cds?? I would love to have copies of those!

[redwink]

The one I like best is Chanukah at Grover's Corner by Dave Grover & the Big Bear Band. At least one of the songs from that one will be on this year's holiday mix. I'd be happy to send you a copy if you want.

The other three aren't on my iTunes and are packed away with the rest of my CD collection. If I can get to the easily, I'll send you the names, but I've had poor luck locating CDs since I put them in boxes. I do remember one was aimed at kids (even more so than the Grover's Corner one) and at least one other was a choral group (local, I think).

Additionally, I have CDs with Chanukah songs mixed in with Christmas/winter songs: Barenaked Ladies and Peter, Paul and Mary spring to mind, but I think there are others as well. The upside to having about 200 holiday CDs - there's a lot of variety and stuff to choose from. The downside - it's easy to get overwhelmed and hard to keep track of stuff.