Christmas or New Year?

Kathy tagged me, and she wants to know which of the two holidays I prefer more.

Hmmm, pretty tough, but I think I can very well rationalize and tell you why New Year is “it” for me.

All my life, prior to getting married, I celebrated both holidays the conventional way, as most Pinoys do. After marriage though, and living in the US, celebrating the two holidays drastically changed.

My husband, as you may know by now, if you’ve been tuned in to this journal for quite a while, is practicing the Jewish religion. I shouldn’t even say “practicing” because he’s not after all a religious Jew or an Orthodox Jew. He does the bare minimum and as form of respect to the Jewish religion, he just observe the high holidays in the Jewish calendar by being off from work. Yeah, and they don’t celebrate Christmas. They have their own holiday equivalent to Christmas, called Hanukkah or festival of lights. It’s a week long celebration where kids receive gifts every night of the seven nights after the celebratory dinner.

That said, I haven’t celebrated Christmas the “traditional way” since I got married. Out of respect, I also haven’t put up any Christmas decor in our place since our first Christmas together. He doesn’t mind the decor though, as every Christmas he even encourages me to go get a “fresh Christmas tree”. I have continuously said no. The way I celebrate Christmas since marriage, is we go to my sister’s place in Long Island, just for the traditional Noche Buena and gift giving. I have also gotten used to saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” reason being that we live in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. We send out “holiday cards” still, sans the usual Christmas tree or Christmas symbols on it, usually just a festive card or something scenic.

New Year is not received with that much revelry here. Unlike the way we celebrate it back home. This holiday, we celebrate it without reservations because it is a neutral holiday.

This is it for today…in My World.