Happy Holidays

This is my second December up in PA. True, last December, I was camped out on the couch, confined, due to my injuries. I did venture out a couple of times. But mainly to release cabin fever.

Now it's about a year later and I'm back in society. I have to admit, there is something about Miami where X-mas just isn't a big deal. Maybe because there just are so many Jews (religious and secular) and also the whole notion of importing in evergreen trees seems to be strange. Nonetheless the 25th of December just sort of came and went and it wasn't a big deal (well I learned the hard way NOT to try to order kosher Chinese that day).

But Pennsylvania is "different". Pretty much everyone assumes that you celebrate the the "holidays" complete with a tree, exchanging presents...the whole nine yards. It is a far cry from feeling alienated. However it's been ages since I've celebrated Xmas; it was probably in high school when I stopped. So it's not something I need to "get used to" either.

In fact, I think I have got too used to it. Yes, Hanukkah is coming up; but it is not a major Jewish holiday. It is a wonderful holiday; but not a major one. You do not get the emotional build up, the days off of work, the special services (yes there are extra brachot that you say, but not a special service). Before I joined the frum world, I would exchange and receive "hanukkah gifts", but I have not done that in ages.

It is around "this time" that you realize just how "unique" you are as a non-Xtian in America. You bow out of the company luncheons (well I do because of kashrus reasons), you don't hum along to Xmas carols, and you don't go into serious debt buying items for loved ones. Yet I am not jealous of not having the holiday. People are curious about it, and it doesn't unnerve me. But I can see how it can make many people feel "odd". Feeling "odd"; it very much comes with the territory for gerim.