Saying Goodbye to Christmas

No- Christmas.  At first I was worry about giving up Christmas.  I love decorating for it and I didn't want the kids to feel left out of something that everyone around them is doing.
But I have to say the more I study the Torah and the more I get involved in Judaism the more I want to let Christmas go.  I feel I am giving my kids something so important and valuable that Christmas doesn't matter.
Now since I always did Christmas in blue, white and silver it has been easier for me to start to make my own Hanukkah decor.  I will decorate for Hanukkah and give the kids a gift each night. But we give gifts even on St Patrick's day so we always give gift.  I know a lot of people don't like to give gifts on Hanukkah because Hanukkah is not the Jewish Christmas.  But it is worth celebrating.  And anything worth celebrating is worth going all out for.  I have learned so much about Purim, Sukkot, and Rosh hashanah that I can't wait to decorate and celebrate them also.
Every year I have seen Hanukkah stuff at stores.  On at least one end cap there would be Hanukkah stuff at Target, TJ Maxx and Ross.  But this year there is nothing.  I don't blame them.  We are in the South and I am sure the sell on these items is very low.  So I am on a mission to make my own.
I have already started. I will post more as we get closer to the holiday.  My kids have really handled this very well.  My daughter does not like Christmas.  This was last year.  When she was four.  When she was three, she wouldn't even come downstairs and her gifts sat there for 3 days unopened..

But getting one gift a day sounds good to her.  So she talks about what she wants for Hanukkah.

My seven year old son who is autistic handled it very well. He talks about Christmas but he knows his gifts are on Hanukkah but he still likes to watch Elf and other Santa Claus movies.  We never told them Santa was real so he just likes Santa movies in the same way he likes Shrek.  It doesn't mean anything to him.  The truth is Christmas isn't a Christian holiday.  The traditions are all pagan and it is the same day and way of celebrating the birth of other demigods like Horus, Mithra, Krishna and Jesus.  The fact that it is called Christmas means nothing because Krishna is in English Christna also known as Christ.  But since 14% of  Christma celebrators are  atheist I think it loses meaning each year.  For us Losing Christmas was the best thing we have done.  We know why we do every little thing in our holidays in Judaism and none of them play second to cartoon characters like Santa, or the Easter Bunny.