For most Jews, it feels difficult to get into the Chanukah spirit when the whole world seem so intent on getting into the Christmas spirit. Everywhere you turn, you see Christmas decorations, sales, lights, articles, candy… It’s almost impossible to walk into a store, doctor’s office or non-Jewish friend’s house without hearing Christmas music, not to mention finding a radio station that doesn’t play at least one Christmas song each hour.
When my kids were young, I used to decorate the house with tons of Chanukah decorations. Albeit, this was not much different than what Christians do, but it helped my kids–indeed, my whole family–get into the Chanukah spirit. Last year, we pulled out a few at the last minute. It felt sort of anticlimactic. There was no “umph” to the whole holiday, because we were busy with school and work.
That’s the other problem. Christians get time off for Christmas, but unless Chanukah falls during that “Christmas break,” Jews have to fit the holiday into every-day life. It can be hard to find time to make latkes and play dreidle when you work all day and the kids have activities and homework.
Yet, Chanukah brings with it the energy of miracles. The Kabbalists said that during the eight days of this holiday, it was possible for humans to access that energy and create miracles in their lives. If we remember that one fact, we can make Chanukah feel magical even in the midst of homework, dishes, work, soccer, dance, and errands. We can focus on the possibility of miracles happening all around us.
I’ve heard it taught that we must actually raise our consciousness to the level of miracles–rather than expecting miracles to “befall” us, or for God to bring miracles “down” to us. If the Kabbalists are right about this fact, then despite our busy lives, during Chanukah we can work on raising our consciousness above the mundane to a higher spiritual level. By doing so, we access that miracle consciousness.
This doesn’t take much really…a little time spent offering gratitude, a few moments focusing on your breath, a quiet moment of prayer–even while driving, an awareness of God’s creation all around you, a blessing for another day of life as you awaken, a focus on the little miracles that happen in your life all the time.
Anticipation also brings us into the Chanukah spirit. Maybe that’s what my decorations accomplished. Putting them out a week or three or four days prior to the holiday helped me build energy around the holiday. Jews often do this by cleaning prior to a holiday, just as we do each week before the Sabbath. We can build energy by getting out our chanukiah, buying candles, making sure we have potatoes for latkes, purchasing gifts or getting brand new dollar bills to offer as “gelt” for the children, or putting out special Chanukah place mats. Or we can anticipate by meditating on the miracle that created the holiday…and the miracles we’d like to create during the current holiday.
We can purchase Chanukah music and play it not only during Chanukah but before the holiday begins. We can read about Chanukah and find new rituals and traditions to make part of our yearly observance. We can have a Chanukah party. (Read about the party I used to throw and the one the president throws in the White House here.)
Really, there’s no excuse to not get into the Chanukah spirit. It’s easy to look around at the Christmas spirit building and to become a grinch, grumbling about how everything is all about Christmas from Halloween all the way until New Year’s Eve…but wouldn’t it be better to get into the Chanukah spirit and create some miracles instead?
