Is it any worse than the way Christians use their own symbols for decoration?
As someone or other put it, at Hannukah we celebrate the miracle that saved the Jewish nation from becoming a puppet client state of the Macedonians - to the joyful liberation of becoming, eventually, a puppet client state of the Romans. 
None of that actual history exactly matters for the meaning of the holiday, as I doubt one Jew in ten knows the post-revolt history of the Hasmoneans … as far as the ‘meaning of the holiday’ goes, Antiochus “Epiphanies” is pictured as just an insane tyrant who wanted to destroy the Jews as a people because they refused to worship him, a sort of Hitler of the ancient world (never mind the actual history was slightly more complex than that, with factions of Jews on both sides - I suppose a case could be made that the Hellenizers were ‘modernists’ and the Maccabees were ‘fundamentalists’ … 
).
I’d say the holiday is all about the mythology of liberation from tyranny and oppression, though a close reading of the history, alas, teaches a more complex lesson.
Not quite the same, but on the first night of Chanukah this year, I suddenly found myself singing the words of the Barukh Atah to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” I don’t know why; it just came to my mind and it fits perfectly.
Once she stopped laughing, my wife informed me that was horribly blasphemous, and once I stopped laughing, I felt very abashed.
Well, to be fair, I’m unsure of the deeply symbolic “Christian” meaning of a Christmas tree, or Santa Claus.
I don’t think too many religious Jews would have a problem with decorating with (say) dreydels as a generic symbol of holiday-ness. Menorahs, OTOH, have a more religious function.
Darn, Purim is my favorite! 
I have always liked that.
I’d never heard this story, thank you for posting it.
That’s an awesome account - I’ve never heard of it before. Great stuff.
A holiday where you are supposed to get drunk, and the women dress up as Persian harem girls? What’s not to like?
Those aren’t exactly Christian symbols, they were [del]stolen[/del] appropriated from Northern European Heathens and Pagans.
As a Pagan, I’m OK with those symbols being used by others because they reflect my faith and give me an alternative to crosses and nativity scenes.
While I don’t have a problem with acknowledging other peoples’ holidays and symbols, one should be aware of what is behind those symbols and treat them with a little respect, not just throw-away tokens of inclusion.
The only bad thing is that it occurs but once a year. 
I’m an atheist who was raised Jewish, and my husband is an atheist who was raised Muslim. We both light the Christmas tree, and we both light the Menorah.
Agnostic loser Jew here, married to atheist former Protestant missionary. I go Christmas caroling almost every year with some very old friends (we’ve done it since middle school; the choir geek side of me wins out over the Jewish agnostic side). You are reminding me of the year it was cold and slushy, and we decided to hit one more house, then go in for hot chocolate. So we picked what we thought was a likely suspect: huge lighted tree on the front porch, etc. Rang the doorbell and launched into something highly religious like “Good King Wenceslas.”
The man who answered the door was scowling, and hey, we’re actually not bad singers! After we finished the first song, we asked him if he had any requests. He asked why we thought he was a Christian (pretty much nobody in our group was a remotely observant Christian either, as far as that goes). “Ummm, the huge tree? The lights and decorations?”
The reply: “The Christians co-opted the Yule log from the Druids!” I think he was actually insulted. Ah well, we went inside and had some mulled wine and have laughed about it ever since.
As far as non-Jews lighting menorahs: I can’t imagine anyone being offended. Well, I guess I can imagine, but it’s a stretch. And as others have already mentioned, Hanukah is not a hugely significant holiday from a theological standpoint.
And then there’s Passover - one year I invited someone who is now a dear friend, but whom I didn’t know that well yet at the time, to Mom’s house for Seder. My mom is kind of a semi-reformed hippie, and her Seders are not so formal. My friend, whom I’d met via her Balkan dance troupe, showed up in skin-tight jeans, spike heels, and quite a lot of cleavage.
The moment I opened the door to let her in, she yanked me aside and showed me a big flowered Russian grandma headscarf and asked whether she should put it on, you know, to cover her head. I was hard-pressed not to break out in hysterical laughter, but just pointed at my mom in her flowy hippie skirt and Birkenstocks, and said “trust me, we’re not so formal around here.” Apparently my friend’s (3rd-generation East European-American) mom had told her that she should cover her head to show some respect
Gotta love living in a multicultural society!
Do you do the goldfish thing at New Years?
Presbyterian is a type of Protestant, it’s one of the Protestant Churches.
In the United States at least, most young Christian males even get circumcised! :eek:
Yep, I’ve been told that before, I just promptly forget.
ETA: similarly I always wished my Jewish friends a “happy holiday” when the holiday was all about atonement and all.
That was the first Jewish service I attended as a kid (with Jewish cousins), and my 7-year-old self thought it was WAY more fun than the Catholic services I’d attended with my grandmother. (My parents were, at the time, unobservant – one Catholic, one Protestant). We got noisemakers! And we got to yell BOO!
I had an intoxicated Rabbi hug me in New Hampshire. It was an unusual experience.
Some symbols have a more direct religious meaning than others. A nativity scene is more meaningful for Christians than Santa Claus. While the latter may have evolved in some lengthy manner from Odin, it’s a bit of a stretch to think he represents Odin these days - more like a (historically debatable) echo or call-out. I wouldn’t say it is disrespectful appropriation to either Christians or modern-day pagans to put Santa Claus on a Coke ad, because his actual religious meaning these days is near nil.
Likewise, dredyls are symbols of Hannukah, but they haven’t got much religious meaning - they are for gambling with during the holiday. The menorah has more religious meaning. I don’t think even the most religious Jew would mind if dredyls were used in (say) commercial advertising.