Happy Holidays...
... to one and to all ...
There are many different holidays and festivities to celebrate these days. urbanMamas wishes you much peace and love!
What are some of your holiday traditions?
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And to all of you! We love to bundle up and walk around our neighborhood looking at lights, then come home and de-thaw with hot chocolate. We also like to make some sort of traditional (in our case, Hanukkah) treat, like potato pancakes or jelly doughnuts.
Posted by: Asha | December 22, 2006 at 01:55 PM
We have Hanukkah traditions, too, like always making latkes on the first night, playing dreidel on the last night, having the kids each light their own menorah, and attending our temple's Hanukkah party.
Whatever is special to you and yours for your holiday, I hope everybody has a great one!
Posted by: Heather | December 22, 2006 at 07:57 PM
I'm enjoying all of the Hanukkah ideas! I am trying to start some traditions with my daughter. We did light candles on the 2nd and 3rd nights, but then she got sick...I used to get together with my friends every year (they are not Jewish) and make Latkes and then we would make candles, which became sort of a tradition, but they are in Hawaii this year, which is a tradition I would like to start! I am finding that even though I am not religious at all, I really want to instill the beauty of my Jewish family's traditions and culture into my daughter's life.
To everyone...if you don't know what someone celebrates, wish them a happy new year, or if you have time, ask. It means so much when someone takes the time rather than just wishing me a Merry Christmas, when it is not my holiday. Happy New Year to you all!
Posted by: Debby | December 22, 2006 at 08:26 PM
This is only my second Hanukkah in Portland, and I am enjoying visiting friends' houses for Hanukkah parties. We always light the menorah and then do manic circle dances around the living room. Feliz Hanukkah!
Posted by: Serena | December 22, 2006 at 08:52 PM
Wow! I didn't realize there were so many Jewish Mama's reading this blog. I'm expecting my first (baby girl) at the end of January. I'd love to connect with some other Jewish mothers--because carrying on the traditions of my religion and culture for my family is very important to me too. If you're ever interested in getting coffee and getting to know each other, feel free to send me an email. BTW, I live in NE.
Posted by: sg | December 23, 2006 at 12:39 PM
For my sons first Christmas I bought him an ornament and again the second year. This is his third Christmas and I will continue to add one ornament a year to his "collection" Every year he can hang his own ornaments and when he leaves home he will take with him a box of ornaments and hopefully special memories to decorate his own tree. Ive tried to pick ornaments with meaning...like last year when we flew back to my home country I bought him an ornamental airplane.
Posted by: LB | December 23, 2006 at 01:10 PM
Here's another Jewish mom chiming in. My son is only 17 months old, but he seemed to enjoy the stuff we did: latkes on the first night, lighting the menorah every (sounds easy, but I swear before we had a child we would get home too late from work and then at the end of Hanukah wind up with an annoying odd amount of leftover candles!), velcroed candles and "flames" on a felt menorah each night, and sang Hanukah songs each night.
We've only been in Portland a few months, so here's a question for other Jewish (and any non-Christmas-observing) moms: What traditions do you have for December 25th?? We used to go to the movies, but that's pretty much out the question with an active toddler. Any recommendations (decent Chinese food, etc...) for getting out of the house for a few hours on Christmas Day?
Posted by: gabrielle | December 23, 2006 at 07:57 PM
I would love to have a Jewish mama get together to maybe talk about celebrating holidays, and how to carry on our traditions as parents. And also about creating new traditions. I know most churches have some sort of venue for this sort of thing. I am not a member of a temple even after living here for 8 years. I also know that most of our community lives in the SW area, where most of the temples are. I am in the SE area. As far as what we do on December 25, I usually hang out with friends celebrating Christmas. It's fun to watch their kids, especially Santa-aged kids, opening presents in their pjs. Chinese food and movies is surely a thing of the past, at least until a few years in the future!!!!
Posted by: Debby | December 23, 2006 at 08:48 PM
We've had Chinese food every year for the past 4 years on the 24th. We usually get together with a few other families and go to Legin on 82nd and Division. Sadly we won't do it this year, opting for takeout due to an illness in our family. Nice to see so many MOTs posting on Urban Mamas. It's so easy to feel marginal this time of year...
Posted by: Robin | December 23, 2006 at 11:09 PM
Wow! I am happy to read about all the ways Jewish families are celebrating this season. My somewhat cynical husband joked that all the Christians are to busy to blog right now. He's probaby right. My son is 17 months old and we have had a pass the last two years about how to incorporate our two sets of traditions (husband is not Jewish) but next year we are going to have some explaining to do. I would love to hear about how people are bringing the interfaith question and if there are any groups that address it. As for this year, we are having a great time simply being festive by enjoying the lights, food, and spirit of thoughtful giving that is part of the season.
Posted by: Franny | December 24, 2006 at 12:13 PM
I was thinking that, too, that all of us Jewish moms have nothing else to do this time of year!
I find it's tough when I want to go out and do things but I don't want to deal with the crowds, especially in my current state at 34 weeks pregnant. sg, we should connect since we are due around the same time! I love to hang out at coffeehouses :) This is my 3rd kid, though, but every time is different.
A heads-up for anyone looking for a restaurant option for tomorrow (12/25): Vegetarian House, an awesome veg Chinese place in Chinatown, will be open from 11-9. Yeah! We will definitely be eating dinner there.
Posted by: Heather | December 24, 2006 at 01:51 PM
we started the season with celebrating the first night of Hanukkah with our neighbors (we're not Jewish) and had a great time (our 3 year old daughter asked if she is going to get a dreidel in her stocking... and she is! in this house, our biggest holiday this time of year is the Solstice. at the time of the solstice, my daughter and i lit a large pillar candle in the fireplace to mark the beginning of our holiday. that night, my husband, she and i each lit a candle we'd made ourselves and sang a special song. we also talked about what we were wishing for in the new year (of Light). i gave her a book called 'winter' (there is one for each season) and we celebrated the new season singing and holding hands... and opened a gift. the solstice marks the beginning of gift time in our house (apart from the one hanukkah gift she opened!) the gifts from the relatives are so numerous, we have felt that one per day is perfect for really enjoying that one and honoring the person who gave it to us. we (okay, father christmas/santa claus/st nick...so many different names!) fill the stockings on christmas eve while the little one is sleeping (and the other adult isnt looking!) and then we open them christmas morning along with one more gift each. and we'll open gifts each day until they're gone. about christmas, i've told our little one that a baby was born and lots of people thought he was pretty special so they wanted to see him and give him gifts and love. lots of different ways to celebrate with holidays of different names... the same idea is finding the Light, which is Love. oh, and eating. we LOVE eating so we're making a special dinner.
Posted by: sarah | December 24, 2006 at 02:36 PM
We're also eastside Jewish parents (daughter born in August). For many years, we did Chinese on Christmas day, often downtown. This year, we're doing Mommy (and Daddy) matinee at the Kennedy School. We've even convinced friends from the 'burbs to join us with their school age kids. The movie on Tuesday is kid-friendly.
In past years, we made latkes & even sufganiyot last year. We did make latkes this year after DD went to sleep, but we couldn't manage to actually invite anyone over!
I think the idea of a Jewish urban mamas get together is great! I go back to work after the first but Fridays are my day off.
Posted by: Susan | December 24, 2006 at 06:07 PM
I second Vegetarian House!!! It's good - and open! Please count us in for a get together - I'm Catholic, but my husband is Jewish and my daughter will be too (as soon as she's old enough to sit in the mikveh). For us, cooking a family dinner and eating in front of the candles was our best stab at tradition. With a 7-month old, cooking, feeding her and lighting the candles in roughly the same time period seemed like a giant challenge. How do all the people with 10 kids do it?
Posted by: cat | December 24, 2006 at 11:46 PM
Wow! Besides being at my kids pre-school I didn't know so many Jewish mamas were around! This was our first year of only celebrating Hanukkah (husband is not Jewish) So this is just a relaxing Monday morning for me :-) We did latkas the first night and had our neighbors come celebrate with us and the last night we saved for the "biggies" in terms of presents! In the past we have tried various ways to mix the two holidays and despite our best intentions and efforts Christmas and Hanukkah ended up competing, w/Hanukkah always losing out. Since we don't celebrate Easter (and an unfortunate throwing of the Christmas tree off the front porch the day before I went into labor last year) we decided to only celebrate Hanukkah this year and it was wonderful. The kids helped light the menorahs and say the blessings and they only opened a gift per night so they really savored that present instead of rushing to the next one.
One new tradition that we did this year which could be a Christmas one as well is that we gave each kid some money to buy the other a present. That way they can start to enjoy the mitzvah of giving!
Happy Holidays everyone and here is to a peaceful new year!
Posted by: daphne | December 25, 2006 at 08:52 AM
Daphne, I like the idea of giving the kids a set amount of money to buy something for their sibling(s). I always make sure my kids buy something for each other, but I think they would get more out of it as a giving experience if they had to budget the funds to buy a present.
Posted by: Heather | December 25, 2006 at 10:28 AM
Let's put our money where our mouth is, so to speak. When do we want to get together? Sometime in January? On the east side of town? Where to meet? Etc?
Posted by: Debby | December 25, 2006 at 09:27 PM
Another Jewish mom here. On the 24th I didn't want to go anywhere with my 25 month old son. And today (Christmas) everything was closed!Luckily, we went to a friend's open house party for dinner. But Christmas can be pretty dark and rainy and a bit boring in Portland! I will keep looking here to see if the Urban Jewish Mammas are going to meet.
Posted by: JG | December 25, 2006 at 09:47 PM
YES! Let's meet! When is everybody more available, during the day or at night? Personally daytime is better for me because my kids are in school. Nights are more family time, helping with homework, after school activities... How about a daytime coffee meetup at Urban Grind on NE 22nd? It's big and has a kids area for the little ones. That's my 2 cents :)
Posted by: Heather | December 25, 2006 at 11:03 PM
I work full time, so I vote for a weekend day.
Posted by: Debby | December 26, 2006 at 07:26 AM
Mondays or weekends work for me. I'd love to meet all of you!
Posted by: Franny | December 26, 2006 at 09:53 AM
Fridays or weekends work for me (East side preferred)
Posted by: Susan | December 26, 2006 at 10:36 AM
Well, we're just putting away all the Christmas decorations and gifts. We're Protestants and we celebrate Christmas...do our best to focus on Christ's birth rather than consumerism...tell our three-year-old daughter that Santa works for God (my husband says "Santa is a sub-contractor," which I love). Our traditions (at this point) include an advent calendar, helping the less fortunate in Portland, cutting down and decorating a Christmas tree, decorating the whole house, visiting the Grotto, exchanging gifts, enjoying many family dinners, making a birthday cake for Jesus (and singing "happy birthday" to him, too), stuffing stockings, baking lots of cookies, building a gingerbread house, participating in church on Christmas Eve, etc.
This year, our daughter is more aware of Christmas than ever before, so we've had LOTS of wonderful fun with her. We still are working to add our own family traditions to those passed down by my husband's and my families. We're looking forward to future Christmases, when she understands even more.
Happy Holidays to everyone!!
Posted by: Kaaren | December 26, 2006 at 08:45 PM
Just wanted to say happy New Year everyone. Peace in 2007.
Posted by: Wacky Mommy | January 02, 2007 at 08:12 PM
One thing we love to do is play holiday music all season long. I think the station here in Portland is 103.3. It is so fun and gets the girls singing.
Posted by: olivia | December 07, 2007 at 03:26 PM