I'll Be Home For Hanukkah by KK Hendin

Author:KK Hendin [Hendin, KK]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: KK Hendin

Shayna and Noam were walking over to see the reindeer when it finally hit. “Noam,” she said. “We have a problem.”

“Okay, what’s the problem? And how can we fix it?”

There was something so reassuringly solid about Noam and how Shayna’s occasional panicking spirals weren’t anything that he couldn’t handle.

“There are a lot of activities on this schedule for us to do. And most of them seem just winter holiday kind of things. But what if there are actual Christmas activities?”

“What’s an actual Christmas activity?”

“I have no idea. But like, there must be some. All I know about Christmas is that it’s Jesus’s birthday, maybe, depending on who you ask, and that there are a lot of commercialized parts of it. But like, I don’t know if it’s the kind of thing where there are all sorts of things with religious significance that I don’t know about. Like, probably they go to church, right?”

Noam shrugged. “No idea,” he said. “But we can Google.”

“What are we supposed to Google? ‘How does Christmas work?’”

“We could try that. But do you think they’re going to expect us to know things?”

“I don’t know how many of them know we’re Jewish. And I think there might be an assumption that even if we don’t celebrate Christmas, we know all the things.” She looked up at him. “Noam, I don’t know all the things.”

“We can Google,” Noam offered. “And you can text Laura. She’ll probably be able to help.”

“But are there different Christmas minhagim?” Shayna stopped and laughed. “Okay, that’s a ridiculous sentence.”

“I’m sure there are. Maybe if people ask us about things, we can say that their traditions aren’t ones we’re familiar with. I mean, we wouldn’t be wrong.”

Shayna nodded. “We’ll make a list of questions to Google. Namely. Who were the three wise men? Is there a significance to the partridge and the pear tree? Is that song like a Chad Gadya kind of thing, or an Echad Mi Yodea kind of thing? Does the tree have any religious meaning?”

Noam laughed. “Imagine if suddenly Jews celebrated Christmas. The questions they’d be asking would be ridiculous. What kind of tree is best? How big should the tree be? Are there different kinds of trees that are acceptable? Does something make a tree not kosher for Christmas?”

Shayna began to laugh.

“When is an acceptable time to decorate for Christmas? Is there a specific day, or is it like putting up the sukkah? Is there a time that you have to open presents? What happens if you can’t open presents on Christmas because they didn’t arrive in time? Is there a Christmas Sheini?”

Shayna clutched at the fence, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I can’t,” she breathed in between gasps of laughter. “What’s wrong with us?”

Noam shrugged. “Probably a lot. Speaking of which, look.” He pointed to the reindeer. “Some have antlers, and some don’t.”

“We’ll add that to the list of things to Google.”

A truck pulled up as they were contemplating over antler losing, and a man hopped out of the truck and started walking toward the building.

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