I’d like to ask our Jewish dopers about their Hanukkah gift giving practices. Does person A give person B a gift for each of the eight days, or just one gift because they’ll open their gifts from other people on the other days? How does the money you spend on gifts overall compare to those who celebrate Christmas? Are there any obscure Hanukkah practices that haven’t got the publicity of menorah lighting or dreidel spinning? And are there any significant differences in Hanukkah practices between the various branches or national backrounds of Judaism?
I’ve always just exchanged one gift (or coupla gifts, depending on the relationship) with friends, of about the same quality as a Christmas gift.
Yeah, same here.
The only people, usually, who get 8 gifts are children, who can be kept wondering each day what that night’s present is going to be. And, by the way, back when I got 8 presents, they usually led from smallest (like a cool keychain, or something) on the first night, to the biggest present (on the order of a couple of CDs, or, in one really splurgy year, a cheap guitar) on the 8th day.
Once kids are 12 or so, if not before, they come to appreciate one gift (I got a bike one year) to eight separate ones. Or, at least, that’s been my experience.
From previous responses, sounds like there’s a “Christmasing of Hanukkah” going on in the US (the Christian world?) In Israel, Hanukkah isn’t all that much of a “gift giving” holiday – there’s the tradition of giving the children some Hanukkah Gelt (some, usually a small sum of, money); lately, perhaps some small gifts. And of course, if you’re invited over to some other family, then you’ll bring some present for the hosts, and maybe a little something for their kids (if they have some and yours were also invited.)
And Scribble – doesn’t it strike you as the same old discrimination all over again? Why should Jewish kids only have Eight Days of Hanukkah when everybody else gets to have Twelve Days of Christmas, huh!?
Who actually gets 12 Days of Christmas? I think they’re still liturgically celebrated by the church, but I’ve not run into anyone who does gift giving for 12 days (outside of song, anyway.)
That’s about the same as in my family. Kids are the only ones who get a bunch of gifts, and even then only small kids are going to get 8 gifts from their parents - the rest of the gifts from other relatives, etc. are spread over the whole holiday, so it’s not like you have an orgy of gift-giving on any particular night.
I’m going over to my mom’s house later, and the only person who is getting multiple gifts from me is my 16-month-old nephew.
P.S. Our family generally doesn’t do huge, extravagant displays of gift-giving, period, and on those occasions when we give gifts worth more than $30-40 or so, it’s more likely to be for a birthday.
But when my dad was married to Stepmother #1 (also Jewish), her family gave gifts on Hanukah AND Chrsitmas, complete with the tree, hiding things in the attic for months beforehand, and having Dad come over on Christmas Eve to read “A Visit From St. Nicholas” to the kids before bed. (Yes, he was Jewish, too - he even taught Sunday school.)
Now I will participate in Christmas-related things, mostly for the social aspect - I am currently trying to organize caroling with my old high school choir buddies, and most years I spend Christmas Eve dishing out roast pork in the soup kitchen of a Puerto Rican church. But to me the whole tree and gift-giving orgy thing was just weird. Even aside from the aspect of a Jewish family celebrating Christmas, the quantity and extravagance of the gifts was just obscene IMO.